Hold My Hand and Don't Let Go
by souffles-and-bowties
Summary: A series of Whouffle stories inspired by prompts that randomly pop into my head at even more random times. Not as much Whouffle in the beginning, but there will be more, I promise! :-) I'm currently not sure if it should fall under the category of "Romance" but not all of it is Adventure either, so I guess I'll give it a shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Truth or Dare and Dinosaurs, Your Typical Morning**

"Truth or dare?"

The Doctor jumped in his seat, and turned to face Clara, a surprised and very much confused look on his face. His expression was close to one of a fish. Clara burst into a fit of giggles, and nearly lost her grip on the steering wheel. She quickly composed herself again.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"I said, truth or dare?"

The Doctor paused, wanting to tell her he didn't do Truth or Dare, not after that one mini adventure with Rose when a Truth or Dare with a group of blue monkeys had gone drastically wrong. The two of them had agreed never to bring the situation up again. But the Doctor, seeing his current companion's expectant smile, sighed, and gave in.

"Truth," he said after a moment of thinking.

"Have you ever...liked anyone? Other than River?"

The Doctor frowned, even more confused than before. "Of course! I like you, and Angie, and Artie, and the TARDIS, and that little Merry Gejelh, remember her? We should visit sometime. And, of course, the Professor, he was quite the interesting fellow. And...and...and all my...my previous companions." His voice lowered to a soft whisper at the last sentence.

"No," Clara said, not quite hearing his tone of voice. "Not that type of like. Like...'like like' you know?"

"I don't, actually," the Doctor said. "I don't know. You humans, so strange and peculiar...making up weird phrases and words...and being so...human." he scratched his chin, then noticed Clara was staring straight at him. He shuffled and fidgeted, slightly uncomfortable.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" he finally demanded.

Clara rolled her eyes but obediently looked away. "Alright, fine. I'll change the question. Have you ever had strong feelings for anyone?" she asked, grinning, truly curious. But the Doctor stayed quiet. Clara shot a glance at him, and realized he was looking quite sad.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" she prompted.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong. Let's play a different game, this one's boring."

And so, Clara never got the answer to her question.

Or so she thought.

It was much, much later did he speak again. They were nearly to their destination (where the TARDIS was parked, there had been a small argument between the Doctor and her, and of course, she had relocated to the middle of nowhere. Luckily, this had happened to the Doctor before, and he knew where she would be). They were driving through a forest at the moment, the window on Clara's side wide open, the Doctor frowning at the sudden bursts of wind.

"Rose," he finally said.

"Sorry, what?" Clara asked, glancing at him.

"Rose," he repeated. "Rose Tyler. She's not here anymore. She left a while ago."

There was a long silence. Then Clara spoke again.

"What was she like?" she asked.

"She was blonde, with hazel eyes. And very kind and brave. She was loyal too. She left her family just so I wouldn't be alone."

"So what happened?" Clara asked tentatively.

"She's alive, perfectly well and happy. She's with her family now. And I suppose she has me. In a way. A version of me...with a mix of Donna. She's in a different universe...I burned up the sun just to say goodbye."

"I'm sorry," Clara whispered.

"Don't be. It's not your fault," the Doctor said. Then he noticed she was looking at him again. "Eyes on the road, Clara Oswald!"

"Clara Oswald?"

The Doctor glance over at her. Well, down, actually. He glanced down at her. "What? That is your name, you know that, right?" then a panicked look rested on his face. "Or you're suffering from amnesia! Clara, when did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?"

Clara giggled. "I'm fine, Doctor. It's just...you usually say something else, too. Clara Oswin Oswald? Oswald for the win? Oswin? Remember? You called me that when we first met."

Before the Doctor could open his mouth to tell her she didn't know how correct she was, he was blown to the side. His back hit the ground hard, but before he had fully landed, he was already up on his feet. Clara's car was up in flames, glass and doors and... red liquid he hoped was just the smoothie Clara had been sipping at scattered everywhere.

"Clara!" the Doctor shouted. "Clara? Clara! Clara!"

"I'm here, Doctor!" came a voice just as the Doctor was about to start panicking. Clara popped out from the other side of the car.

"Ah! Good! You're safe!" the Doctor exclaimed, rushing over to squish her in a hug.

"Doctor?"

"You're safe, good, good. That explosion! If the car had toppled onto you, you would be a pancake now. A flat souffle! Yes, not a pancake, a flat souffle! That would be bad. Very, very bad. No, don't get me wrong, I like souffles, just not...flat Clara souffles, if you know what I mean..."

"Doctor..."

"You know, I've never truly tried an actual souffle before."

"Doctor!"

"Well, don't blame me, your cooking doesn't exactly encourage me."

"Doctor," Clara repeated, her voice slightly strained now.

"No, no, that's not what I meant-"

"Doctor!"

The Doctor jumped. "Yes, what is it?"

"You're crushing my back," Clara hissed. The Doctor quickly stepped back, as if Clara was some sort of poisonous snake. Clara rubbed her back and gave him a half-amused, half-annoyed look. Then she bent down to check the car.

"What could've done that?" she asked.

"Well, it could have just been an innocent, uh, explosion of the...the...whatever is inside the car, or, hopefully, it was an alien attack of the explosive creatures from-"

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Shh."

Clara prodded at the car with a large piece of plastic. "I don't think it was an alien invasion," she finally declared, much to the Doctor's disappointment. Then she sighed and nudged the Doctor.

"Come on, let's keep moving," she said. "We need to find the TARDIS. That old cow. It's all her fault."

"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed. "It is not her fault!"

Clara raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything. They trudged along for another hour, until the Doctor bounced on his feet and pointed at a hill in the distance, a big, five-year-old grin set on his face.

"There she is!"

Before Clara could say anything, he grabbed her hand and took off, nearly yanking her arm out of its socket.

"Ow! Wait! No, slow down!" Clara protested as she was dragged along. Then the Doctor did something completely uncalled for. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Clara blew a piece of hair out of her face and glared at the grass.

**"**Well," she said. "I was definitely not expecting that."

* * *

"Where do you want to go now, Clara?"

The Doctor did a spin, and flicked a few levers (probably just to look professional). Then he jumped down the stairs, did a kick, spun again, and stopped. Clara grinned, wondering how he wasn't already flat on his face.

"I dunno," she said. "I kind of just want to go back home. I'm tired."

The Doctor's face fell. "Oh. Oh, well, that's...that's fine."

"Or..." Clara continued. "We could go to a very peaceful, relaxing planet. Have a picnic, talk, nothing too scary or exciting."

"I don't understand," the Doctor muttered. "We could go defeat Daleks, and save universes, and you want to have a picnic?"

Clara giggled. "Come on, Doctor. Please?"

The Doctor pretended to make a face, but switched a few levers, pressed a few buttons, then smiled at her fondly.

"Of course," he said. Clara tilted her head, slightly confused by the sudden change in mood.

"Alright then," she replied. "What planet are we going to?"

The Doctor smiled, and whipped out a blindfold from his supposedly bigger-on-the-inside pockets. He reached his hands out to tie it around Clara's head, then turned her towards the console.

"Hold on tight," he said. Clara grabbed onto the railing, her grip tightening when the TARDIS began shaking. After a few seconds, when the TARDIS was stable again, Clara let go of the console and raised her arms out like a zombie, looking for the Doctor. A pair of large, strong hands rested onto her shoulders and guided her to the door, pulling it open. Immediately, the scent of fresh flowers filled Clara's nose. A few birds chattered, their songs floating in the sky.

"Where are we?" she asked. The Doctor yanked her blindfold off, and Clara blinked, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness.

The landscape was beautiful. Rolling golden hills in the distance, a field of bright green grass dotted with small wildflowers surrounded by trees that were turning red and orange. The sky was the bluest blue, with fluffy-looking white clouds travelling across it. Birds rested on their branches, and a few animals were munching grass in the middle of it all.

"Wow," was all Clara could say. "What planet are we on?"

The Doctor smiled. "Earth," he replied. "Millions and millions of years ago. Come on! Picnic, right?"

Clara let herself be led along, her mouth still open, eyes wide, staring at everything that lay before her. "This is Earth?" she murmured. "What happens to it?"

"Well," the Doctor said, clearing his throat. "This becomes New York City."

Clara whipped her head around. "_New York City? _So they just destroy this whole place?"

"It'll be destroyed long before that, don't you worry."

"Continental drift," Clara said after a long minute. "I learned something about that in school. Okay, exactly what year are we in?"

The Doctor cleared his throat again. "Picnic! We came here for a picnic! Let's stop worrying about tomorrow-well, actually, a few hundred million years ago-and enjoy today! Besides, what's going to happen will happen, no matter what you try to do about it. Number one rule of time travelling."

"I thought the number one rule was that we never walk away," Clara said.

"That too. They, can, um, share number one," the Doctor replied, slightly flustered. He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a basket and a blanket. Then he took Clara's hand and began strolling through the meadow, until they came to a piece of land around a mile away from the small hill the TARDIS was parked on. He tossed the blanket on the ground and smoothed it out. Then he set the basket down, and smiled, pleased with his work. Clara rolled her eyes.

"Alright, what've we got?"

She flicked the basket open and began pulling things out.

"Sandwiches, bananas, fish fingers and custard, watermelon, apples-"

"Apple?" the Doctor demanded. He grabbed the bag of fruit and tossed it over his shoulder. "Apple's rubbish."

"Water, juice, muffins, tangerines...wow. This basket is pretty big."

"Bigger on the inside!" the Doctor declared, beaming. He grabbed the bag of fish fingers and custard and gulped it all down within five seconds. Then he peeled a banana, and soon, that was gone as well.

"I'm done," he said. Clara frowned at him.

"That's not how you do a picnic," she said. "You have to enjoy the food, enjoy the landscape, and talk. And be peaceful."

The Doctor wrinkled his nose, but took a tangerine and began chewing it thoughtfully. Clara giggled, and bit into a sandwich.

"This is fun," the Doctor said after a few minutes. "Not as exciting, but it's-"

"Relaxing," Clara said. "We should do this more often."

* * *

After eating, the two of them lay back on the blanket and stared up at the sky. They stayed like that until sunset, when the Doctor suddenly jumped to his feet.

"I heard something," he said. Clara sat up too and listened.

"I don't hear anything," she protested.

The Doctor waved his screwdriver around then stared at it. "There's something out there. It's been watching us for a while," he whispered.

"You're scaring me," Clara replied. "Let's go back to the TARDIS. It's getting late."

"Rule number one. We don't walk away. Especially from a mystery."

"This isn't a mystery!" Clara said. "It's just someone following us."

"I don't think it's a someone," the Doctor muttered. "I don't think it's human at all."

"An alien?" Clara asked, slightly nervous. "What would an alien be doing on Earth before the first humans were even born?" The Doctor turned his head slowly to meet her gaze.

"Clara," he said. "What lived on Earth two-hundred-million years ago?"

Clara's eyes immediately widened in understanding, just as a loud roar echoed through the forest to their left. Something rustled in the trees. Pounding footsteps sounded in the air. Then a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex burst into the clearing, jaws snapping at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Running from Mr. Rex**

"Two hundred million years?" Clara panted as they ran. "Why then? Why couldn't you have just picked a beach on Hawaii in 2013?"

She saw the Doctor shrug out of the corner of her eye. "I forgot!"

"Forgot about the dinosaurs?" Clara exclaimed. "How do you forget about _dinosaurs?"_

"I was going to go to five hundred million years ago, but I undershot, and decided two hundred million wasn't that bad. I didn't know the dinosaurs lived in this time period!" He ducked as the T. Rex's jaws snapped at his head. Clara was about to roll her eyes, but she was too busy running for the TARDIS and scolding the Doctor.

"For a Time Lord, you're pretty bad with history!" she said.

"Get down!"

The Doctor reached out and tackled her, sending them both rolling down a small hill, just as the T. Rex snapped its teeth over the piece of land Clara had been standing on a split second ago. Clara blinked in shock, but was yanked to her feet, and gently pushed along.

"Climb a tree," the Doctor hissed.

"Climb a tree? Are you kidding? That has got to be the most dangerous way of escaping a T. Rex ever. He'll just walk up to us and gulp us down."

But the Doctor had already vanished into the forest. Clara glanced over her shoulder. The dinosaur was about to charge at her. Quickly, she followed the Doctor, and found him inching up a tall tree. He glanced down at her, and waved at her to come up. Clara grabbed a branch and hauled herself onto it, panting, already tired. The T. Rex roared behind her. She pulled herself up and up, until she reached the tenth branch.

"I can't reach!" she called to the Doctor, who was hidden in the leaves. "I'm too short!"

The Doctor's arm shot out of nowhere, and Clara jumped in surprise, nearly toppling to the ground. "Grab my hand," the Doctor murmured. Clara reached up and entwined her fingers with his, and felt herself being picked up. Then, suddenly, she was sitting on the Doctor's lap, blocked from the view of the dinosaur. And just in time. The T. Rex thundered into the forest, jaws wide open, dripping saliva. It swung its head around, beady eyes searching.

"Doctor?" Clara asked.

"Yes?" the Doctor whispered.

"I'm scared."

"It's okay," the Doctor replied. "I won't let you get hurt."

They waited for another long, intense minute, but the dinosaur made no move to leave.

"Doctor, what do we do?" Clara asked.

"Shh, wait," the Doctor hissed. Another minute passed. Then three. Then five. Then ten. And soon enough, twenty. The dinosaur prowled the area, snarling and growling, clearly desperate for food.

"Now what?"

"We need a diversion," the Doctor muttered.

"That's crazy," Clara said.

"Well, I'm doing it the classical way."

He picked up a small stone that was stuck in between two branches, and pitched it at the opposite tree. It hit its target with a loud thud, and the dinosaur spun around. The Doctor slid over to the back of the tree they were currently sitting on and slowly inched himself to the ground. Clara watched as the dinosaur froze, sniffed the air, then snapped its teeth over the tree the stone had landed in. It creaked, and leaned to the right, but didn't fully fall.

Then the Doctor leaped out and waved his arms. "Hey, dinosaur, over here! It's your buddy, the Doctor!"

The T. Rex clearly didn't approve of this, and charged at the Doctor, roaring.

"Clara, go!"

Clara quickly found her way to the ground and began running for the TARDIS. When she arrived at the hill, she glanced behind her. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.

"Doctor?" she shouted. "Doctor, where are you?"

She looked back at the TARDIS doors. They looked inviting. But Clara couldn't leave the Doctor behind. She sprinted down the hill, back into the forest, and glanced around her frantically.

"Doctor!" she shouted. A few bird-like creatures took to the air, screeching. "Doctor, please, where are you?"

She stumbled through a few bushes, scratching her hand on one, and took a deep breath. Could Time Lords regenerate in a dinosaur's stomach? She doubted that, but told herself to remain calm.

"Alright," she muttered. "Doctor, you are in big trouble when this is all over."

* * *

After a long night of searching, Clara began getting the feeling she should just take the TARDIS and leave. But what if the TARDIS refused to open her doors? Clara wouldn't be surprised. She would do the same thing if she were her. Then a thought struck Clara. What if she was forced to live in this time period for the rest of her life? She would die within a few weeks.

"Doctor!" Clara shouted, her voice echoing in the night sky.

A hissing sound greeted her.

Clara froze. "Who's there?" she asked.

More hissing.

Clara backed away, but hissing just continued behind her. She spun around, glancing at her surroundings, practically blind in the darkness. Then a voice came from the shadows. A voice that definitely wasn't the Doctor's.

_Clara Oswald, _it hissed.

"Who are you?" Clara shouted. "Are you the Vashta Nerada? The Doctor told me about you. You live in the shadows, don't you?"

_The Vashta Nerada, _the voice sneered. _I am stronger than them. Stronger than anything in the world. In the universe._

_"_Where's the Doctor?" Clara demanded. "Where is he?"

_Why do you care for him? _the voice asked. _He's a murderer, a traitor, the darkest man you will ever meet. _

_"_He's not," Clara growled. "You're only saying that."

_You think you're special to him. They all did. But look at them now. Does the Doctor ever mention them? No. He forgets them, he lets them die. Rot away forever and ever. When you go, when you perish, do you think he'll spare you a thought? He'll have_ _a new companion, a new young companion he takes on adventures and runs away with. You would do better in your own time period, your own planet, without him to lead you into danger. You've died already, did you not know?_

_"_I had to," Clara replied. "For him."

_And most of the time he didn't even give you a second glance. You died for him so many times, and what does he do? Celebrate with his friends, run away again._

_"_And how do you know that?" Clara challenged.

_Because I know every single detail about you. I know what you fear. I know your deepest secrets. I know everything. _

Then the most hideous thing happened. Tendrils of darkness reached out at Clara and wrapped around her head. Everything she feared, everything she hated, flooded into her mind, images she had wanted to forget, information she had never wanted to learn. She shrieked and batted at the shadows, backing up, stumbling over a dead tree.

"Clara!" The Doctor appeared out of nowhere, and rushed towards her, gathering her in his arms. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"It's in my head!" Clara screamed.

"What is?"

"Don't you see them?" Clara asked desperately.

_Of course he doesn't, _the voice said. _He doesn't care enough to._

_"_Can you hear them?"

The Doctor hesitated. "I hear taunting voices. Lies. Don't listen to them, Clara. Stay strong."

* * *

Clara blinked her eyes open. She was in a bed. Not hers. This bed was too soft, too many pillows and blankets. There was no window, the light that came from the lamp was too blue, not white enough, and the wallpaper was different.

"Doctor!" Clara called, sitting up. A gentle snoring sound came from below her. She glanced over the edge of the bed to see the Doctor sitting on a beanbag chair, sleeping. She prodded at the Doctor's chin, and suddenly, he sat up, his forehead crashing into hers. Clara wrinkled her nose and rubbed her head, which was beginning to take on the worst headache ever.

"Clara! You're awake!"

"Where are we?" Clara asked.

"The TARDIS, of course! See, she made you a bedroom!"

Clara smiled. "I can see."

"Good!"

Then he frowned, snapping back to seriousness. "What happened last night, Clara?"

Clara's smile dropped, and she collapsed back onto her bed. "I really don't know. There was a voice. In the shadows. It told me horrible things, and then...then it wrapped itself around my head. I was scared, Doctor. Everything I have ever been terrified of, everything I ever hated..."

"Oh, Clara," the Doctor murmured, standing up and tapping her nose fondly.

"Where were you?" Clara asked. "I was looking for you. You disappeared."

"Ah, well," the Doctor muttered. "The dinosaur turned out to be quite friendly. Introduced me to his family, I played with the little ones for a while."

Clara snorted. "Right," she said sarcastically. "That totally happened."

The Doctor grinned. "It did! Really, I promise!"

Clara sighed. "So. What was that thing?" she asked, changing the subject once more. "The thing in the shadows."

"It was never there, Clara," the Doctor said. "It was all in your head. You were scared, you must have been. And worried. That creature was created out of all that. Everything you were scared of, everything you have been secretly thinking in the very back of your brain."

"So why hasn't it ever appeared at other times? I've been scared quite a lot."

"You were alone," the Doctor replied. "The other times you were scared, was there a single moment there wasn't someone with you?"

Clara frowned. "No."

"Exactly. And I'm sorry, Clara. It won't happen again."

Clara smiled and reached up to hug the Doctor, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Don't be sorry. It's not your fault."

The Doctor flailed slightly for a few seconds, then returned the hug, squeezing her tightly. Clara coughed.

"Doctor," she said. "You're squashing me."

"I know."

Clara smiled into his shoulder. What would she do without him?


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This chapter is probably going to be a lot shorter, since it's nothing adventure-y. Just a normal day in the TARDIS. And thanks to whouffleLove for being the first to review, and for your super kind words :)**

**How to: Take an alien by surprise**

"No, stop, wait!" Clara shouted, balancing at the very edge of the pool. "Don't you dare push me in!"

She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes tightly, dipping a foot into the water.

"Cannonball!" the Doctor shoved her face first into the sparkling blue pool. Well, not really a cannonball. More of a belly flop. After a long minute, Clara resurfaced, spluttering, a very angry look on her face. The Doctor's eyes widened as he realized what a grave mistake he had just made. Push a Dalek into the pool? No problem. A cyberman? Pfft, he would love to see the look on its emotionless metal face. Push Clara, on the other hand...well, he was dead meat. Clara climbed out of the pool, dripping wet. But instead of the scolding the Doctor expected, she simply wrapped a towel around herself and walked out of the room. The Doctor, blinked, surprised. Was she really _that_ mad?

"Clara!" he called, chasing after her. Clara slammed the bathroom door in his face. After a few seconds, he heard the shower water begin running. "Well," he muttered. "Not my fault. When someone tells me not to push them in, it automatically makes me _want_ to push them in. How do humans just not understand that?" He slumped over to the TARDIS console room, and patted the console lovingly. "You understand, don't you?" The TARDIS whirred. "What do you mean, you would've pushed her in anyway? What, just to get me in trouble?"

The TARDIS quickly stopped talking. Or whirring, for that matter.

After ten minutes or so, the Doctor heard a loud clanging in the kitchen, then a muttered curse from Clara. The Doctor swung into the TARDIS hallway, into the kitchen, and was greeted by a sack of flour dumped over his head. He stood there in shock, arms flailing. When the white powder finally settled, he found Clara crouched there, almost literally rolling on the floor laughing.

"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That...that's not...that...not fair!"

He grabbed a few eggs and threw them at Clara's head. They cracked easily, and white and yellow liquid rushed down Clara's face. She stopped laughing, but a devilish smile formed on her face. She picked up the chocolate syrup, and before the Doctor could raise his hands of to shield himself, squirted his bow tie with the dark sauce. Then she ducked under the Doctor's raised arms and escaped the kitchen, running as if an army of cybermen were behind her.

"You come back here, missy! You ruined my bow tie! I'll get you for that!" Luckily, he was a faster runner than Clara, and he caught up to her quickly. He wrapped an arm around her and spun her around. Clara let out a shriek, and began pounding her fists against his chest.

"Put me down!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"You'd better be," the Doctor said, fake-growling. He reached into his pockets and drew out a banana, smashing (more like squishing) it onto Clara's head. Clara grinned at him, and the Doctor beamed back. His Impossible Girl, with a banana lump sitting on her head and eggs dripping off her face, had never looked more beautiful in her life.

"You know, Doctor," Clara said after a long minute. "You can put me down now."

The Doctor practically dropped her. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Don't be," Clara replied. "That was fun. Come on, let's do something normal today. Watch a movie, maybe?"

The Doctor made a face. "Movies. Boring. Sitting there, watching a story of someone who doesn't even exist. Now, if they made a movie on _my_ life and adventures, I would understand, but-"

"Movie it is!" Clara declared.

"Oh, alright," the Doctor said, making his way towards the TARDIS theater. "What do you want to watch?"

Clara grabbed his hand. "No, no, we're going to the Maitland's," she said.

The Doctor frowned. "We have a perfectly good theater here, Clara," he protested.

"Yeah, we do, but I want a perfectly good living room. And your TARDIS doesn't have one."

As if to prove her wrong, Clara and the Doctor were suddenly transported to a cozy-looking room, complete with a fireplace, two couches, and a TV.

"Ha!" the Doctor said. "You're wrong!"

"Doctor..." Clara said in a warning voice. The Doctor pouted.

"Okay, fine. You know, I'll never understand you humans."

* * *

Clara was leaned against the Doctor's shoulder, munching her pizza, her eyes fixed on the TV, looking absolutely fascinated. The Doctor, on the other hand, was trying hard not to fidget, his attention anywhere but the TV.

"I don't get it," Clara suddenly announced. The Doctor jumped.

"Hm? What? What don't you get?" he asked.

"How that character just died right there," Clara said. "We never saw what really happened. I'm confused."

She glanced at the Doctor. "You watched, right? Did you see anything?"

The Doctor swallowed. "No. Nothing. I-I...I saw nothing."

Clara gave him a suspicious look, but turned back to the TV. After another hour, Clara's weight somehow seemed to get heavier. The Doctor glanced down at her to find her sleeping, her breathing slow and steady. He froze. He considered picking her up and setting her in a more comfortable position (her position at that current moment looked extremely awkward), but then decided that would probably wake her up. And so he sat there, tried to ignore Clara, and watched the movie. After about two minutes, he found himself nodding off. Immediately, he jerked upright, and switched the TV off. He tried standing up, but found his sleeve caught in a small pin that held a piece of Clara's hair together. He reached over and began to carefully tug it out, when Clara suddenly flipped onto her other side. The Doctor was yanked along. He fell heavily onto Clara, whose eyes blinked open.

"Doctor!" she sat up, raising the Doctor's arm as well. "What are you doing?"

"My sleeve's stuck," the Doctor whispered, blushing as red as Clara's dress. She visibly relaxed, glanced up at her hair, and began to laugh. Then she un clipped the pin and yanked it off the Doctor's sleeve.

"Nice movie, then?" she asked.

"Yup," the Doctor answered. Clara grinned at him.

"You weren't watching at all, were you?" she accused.

"I was watching!"

"Then tell me who the main character is," she demanded. The Doctor's mouth opened and closed.

"I dunno," he finally muttered. Clara laughed.

"Ha!" she said. "Of course not."

"You'd better get to bed," the Doctor said after Clara yawned a huge yawn. "It's late."

"Okay," Clara stood up and marched out the front door. The Doctor frowned, and quickly followed her, only to find her leaning against the TARDIS.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.

"I want to go somewhere tomorrow," she explained. "See the sunrise on Earth two hundred million years ago, yeah? And then I want to meet Mr. T. Rex again. I don't think we got properly introduced the last time."

The Doctor beamed at her. "Yeah."

He followed her into the TARDIS, where she collapsed on the bean bag chair next to her bed and fell asleep. He shook his head. Clara Oswald. The Impossible Girl? No, the Unpredictable Girl. And unpredictable quite satisfied his tastes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Not Your Average Scuba Diving Day**

"Where do you wanna go?" the Doctor asked. "I was thinking scuba diving on the-"

"Scuba diving, sure," Clara muttered, not looking up from her book. "Sounds fun."

"On the Titanic," the Doctor finished, testing her. Clara yawned.

"Cool."

"Clara!" the Doctor exclaimed, shaking her shoulders. Clara set the book down and lightly whacked him on the head.

"Don't you know the rule 'Don't bother your girlfriend when she's reading'?"

The Doctor blushed crimson. "Girlfriend? I...you...you're not...when did that...I...shut up!"

Clara grinned and stood up, satisfied. "So, where _are_ we going?" she asked, skipping over to the console, running her hands along the surface. The Doctor quickly pushed her hand away, giving her a stern look.

"You almost hit The Lever!" he exclaimed. "Never hit The Lever!"

Clara raised her hands in surrender, but an eyebrow jumped up at least an inch. "Alright, alright, I won't. Sorry. Scuba diving, you said? On the... Titanic? Did you say Titanic?! _Titanic?!_ Doctor, we are not going scuba diving on the Titanic, no matter what you say, or what-"

"We're not!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I was just trying to get your attention. Just scuba diving, maybe at...the...uh..."

"Earth?" Clara suggested.

"No, not Earth! That's boring! Absolutely boring!"

He flicked a few switches.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked.

"Looking for local scuba diving places that's not on Earth," the Doctor replied. He squinted at the monitor, then grinned. "Ah-ha!" he exclaimed. "Perfect! Absolutely perfect!" He pressed another switch, and pulled a lever. Immediately, Clara was thrown against the railing, but she was already used to this, so she didn't glare at the TARDIS like she would've done a month ago.

"Where exactly are we going then?" she shouted over the crashing.

"You'll see!"

The TARDIS jolted to a stop, and the Doctor skipped up to the door, pulling it open. Clara's mouth fell open. They were underwater. A city loomed above them, silver, with sparkling blue lights. Clara swam out into the ocean, and glanced up. A nearly see through sphere circled the city.

"Whoa," she muttered. "That's...quite something."

The Doctor grabbed her hand. "Come on!" he exclaimed. "Let's go scuba diving!"

He swam out into the open, and began doing flips. Clara giggled. "This isn't scuba diving," she said. "This is...just...swimming."

"Well, it's fun!" the Doctor pulled her into a series of cartwheels, and she rubbed her head.

"No, it's dizzying," she protested. "I wanna check out the city. We'll still be swimming, Doctor. Don't look so put out."

The Doctor followed his companion into the city and found that they _weren't _swimming anymore. There were paths, shining white, although technically, everyone was still floating.

"How am I breathing?" Clara asked, glancing around her.

"Bubble surrounding the city, it helps you breathe."

"So why is there water?"

"The people here need water," the Doctor explained. "It's complicated. Ah, that reminds me. Don't touch the bubble. You'll get sucked out, you won't be able to get in, you'll drown. Because, according to legend, there isn't even a surface up there. It's how they execute people."

Clara shuddered. "That's horrid," she murmured.

They walked along the roads for a while, Clara examining the buildings and people, while the Doctor whistled casually, clutching his sonic screwdriver. You never know what could happen when you're vacationing in a fish world.

"Hey, look!" Clara said, pointing at a few figures on a silver hill. "Why are they staring at us?"

The Doctor cast a glance at the figures. "Keep an eye on them," he muttered.

Clara immediately inched closer to him, and began staring back. After a long minute, the figures vanished.

"Whoa," Clara murmured. "They just disappeared."

"They're water people, they probably do that all the time, ah! Underwater food!"

The Doctor pulled Clara over to a cart, where a man was selling strange seafood deserts.

"Buy your sea-"

The man froze. The Doctor, not yet noticing, grabbed a sushi-like object and popped it in his mouth.

"Mm, very good," he gave the man a thumbs up, only to find him staring at Clara, a finger raised, pointing. "It's her!" the man exclaimed. Clara backed up as people began gathering around them.

"It's her! The cursed one!"

A fish woman fainted, and a child began wailing. A few people slammed their doors shut.

Clara frowned at the Doctor. "I'm not cursed! At least I don't think I am. Am I cursed, Doctor?"

"No, you're not," the Doctor said, pulling her closer. "You're making a mistake!" he shouted to the people. "She's just a visitor! She's perfectly innocent!"

The people began pressing at them, shouting strange alien insults that were probably worse than they sounded. One of them threw a fish at Clara's head. Clara clutched the Doctor's hand.

"What's happening? Why am I cursed?" she asked. The Doctor glanced behind them, ignoring her question.

"Clara," he whispered. "Look behind you."

Clara flicked a look over her shoulder as well. They were nearing the edge of the city. Soon enough, they would be nearing the edge of the bubble. She began panicking, wondering if everyone could hear her heartbeat, which was getting louder and faster by the second.

"What do we do?" she asked in a high-pitched squeak. The Doctor jumped and began paddling his way up, but the people followed.

"Right," he muttered. "Bubble at the top, too." He raised his hands up. "Wait, wait, freeze, right now! Everyone stop! Fingers on lips!"

He drew his index finger to his mouth. The city people frowned, not amused at all, and he quickly dropped his hand.

"Okay, that was a bad idea," he muttered.

Their pursuers began swimming towards them again.

"Waaaaaait!" the Doctor shouted. He pointed at one of the villagers. "You! _You_ will tell me why Clara's cursed. Yeah, go on."

"She brought bad luck to the city," the man said. "She made the gods angry. We are still suffering, because of her! The gods will not be happy until she is sacrificed!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Clara said. "I've never been here before."

"They said she would say that!" the man shouted. "She is truly the one!"

The people began swimming like crazy at them. It would've been hilarious, a bunch of red-face mermaids doggy-paddling in their direction, but in their current situation, it was slightly terrifying. The Doctor glanced above him. The bubble. It was shining, as if light was being cast upon it.

"That doesn't make sense," the Doctor muttered to himself. "The city is filled with artificial lighting, why is the outside of the bubble yellow and white?"

"Doctor?" Clara asked. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking there _is_ a surface," he muttered. "But the people executed were thrown out at the wrong place. Look, Clara! That's sunlight, it's yellow, not blue. Just a small, tiny patch of it."

He took one glance at the villagers, and began swimming for the bubble.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Clara muttered. Someone threw a strange sharp device at her, and she ducked just in time. "Okay, maybe not." She grabbed the Doctor's arm, and watched as he touched the bubble. She felt a strange tingling sensation, and then, suddenly, she couldn't breathe. The villagers jeered after them, then turned, and disappeared into the city, most likely to celebrate.

_They're not very smart, _the Doctor mouthed. He kicked his legs hard, but there was no surface in sight. After thirty seconds or so, he glanced behind him. Clara was beginning to look panicked. No. The Doctor wasn't losing her again. Not this time. He kept kicking, and felt Clara droop slightly next to him. Then he caught sight of it. The surface. Shimmering with light. But it was too far, the Doctor wouldn't reach it in time.

When he was about to truly start flipping out, a sudden sound echoed through the water, a sound slightly like a dying dinosaur.

The TARDIS.

The doors flew open at the Doctor's touch, and he swam in gratefully, snapping the doors closed behind him.

Immediately, he set Clara down onto the floor, and thumped her back hard. She began coughing like crazy, water gushing out from her mouth.

"Clara? Are you okay?"

Clara kept coughing for another minute. Then she took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

"Doctor?" she glanced around at her surroundings. "We're in the TARDIS...but...I was drowning. We..."

"The TARDIS saved us!" the Doctor announced, beaming. "See? She doesn't hate you!"

Clara rolled her eyes and pulled herself to her feet. "Next time, can we listen to me? Stay on Earth?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said. "Probably the best idea."

But Clara knew that by next Wednesday, he would've forgotten.

Typical.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Prompts are extremely, incredibly welcome...no, seriously, like if I get an overload of messages for prompts, I will literally hug my computer and...I don't know...throw a mini party.**

**In which the Doctor becomes a Doctor**

Ding dong.

"Angie!"

The bedroom door opened and closed, and then Angie was standing there, arms folded, eyebrow raised.

"What?" she asked.

"Tell the Doctor I can't go today," Clara said. "And whatever you do, don't let him in!"

She waved a hand at Angie, dismissing her, and the young teenager hurried off, hand pressed over her nose and mouth, desperate not to catch Clara's sickness. Clara sighed and leaned against her pillow, flipping her book open to page 154. She heard the door open, the Doctor's cheerful greeting, then Angie's sour reply.

"She can't go adventuring with you today, Doctor," Angie said. "She's...got plans."

The Doctor muttered something that Clara didn't quite catch. Then Angie sighed dramatically.

"You can't expect her to always be with you," she snapped. Clara had to stop herself from running down the stairs and giving Angie a good scolding for being so rude. But the Doctor didn't seem angry at all.

"Well, where is she?" he asked brightly.

"Out," Angie growled.

"Out where?"

"No, I meant, get out!" the door slammed. Clara slipped out of bed and peered out the window. The Doctor was still standing there, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"Angie!" Clara hissed. Angie poked her head into Clara's room.

"What now? I got him to go away, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but you were rude," Clara pointed out.

"Oh, so you want me to be sweet and sugary? He'll know something's up by the time I say my first sentence."

Clara had to agree with her on that. She collapsed back onto her bed and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Okay, okay. Go do your homework." Angie walked off, muttering about how Clara was always telling her to do her homework, and that she should really stop fussing over them so much.

After around five minutes or so, Clara dozed off, and began dreaming about baking souffles with the Doctor, in the TARDIS kitchen. He was teaching her how to stir right, when suddenly, a loud bang came from the room. Clara's eyes blinked open drowsily, to find the Doctor peering at her. She rubbed her eyes.

"Well, you're certainly not out," the Doctor observed.

Clara nearly jumped out of her skin. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

The Doctor frowned, slightly offended. "Checking on you, of course. What else would I be doing? Angie seemed a bit too snappy. I knew something was wrong by the time she said her first sentence."

Clara groaned. "Wonderful," she muttered sarcastically. "How in the world did you get in?"

"The window," the Doctor replied. Clara turned her head, dreading what she knew she would see, and saw the window was partially smashed. Just as she thought. Her eyes widened, then narrowed in disappointment.

"Doctor! You broke the window?"

The Doctor blinked. "Not that big of a problem. Watch!" he pointed his screwdriver at the broken shards of glass, and soon enough, the window was perfectly pieced together again. He beamed at Clara, clearly proud of his accomplishment. Clara sighed.

"Doctor, really, I can't go today. I'm busy."

"You're sick," the Doctor corrected. "And I'm a Doctor, so it'll all work out perfect!"

"You're not really a Doctor," Clara told him, sitting up. "You're _the_ Doctor. You don't actually have a degree!"

"I do!" the Doctor protested. "In a way." Then he pointed his sonic screwdriver at Clara, and scanned her. Clara blinked, annoyed, as the light flashed into her eyes. The Doctor examined his results, and grinned.

"Nothing bad, just a cold!" he exclaimed.

"I still can't go adventuring," Clara told him. He frowned at her.

"Well, of course not! But I'm taking care of you today. It'll be fun, I promise."

He bounced out of the room, and Clara sighed. "Yeah, for you."

* * *

The Doctor skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen, much to the shock of Angie and Artie.

"You're not supposed to be here!" Angie said. "I told you to leave!"

"I'm taking care of Clara today," the Doctor told her, beaming, ignoring (or maybe just not noticing) Angie's rude behavior. He grabbed a pack of Jammie Dodgers, fixed a cup of tea, and hurried back up the stairs, leaving Angie glaring at him, and Artie looking extremely confused as to what was happening.

When he re entered the room, Clara was sitting in a chair, feet resting against her bed. The Doctor set the food and drink down, then picked her up, and plopped her back onto her mattress.

"Hey!" Clara said. "I was reading!"

"You have to rest," the Doctor announced.

"I was," Clara said crossly. "And I was doing fine before you came too."

The Doctor smiled at her, except this time it wasn't a childlike goofy smile. It was a genuine smile that made Clara nearly as confused as Artie had been. She cleared her throat.

"Alright then," she said, picking up a Jammie Dodger and biting into it carefully. The Doctor sat down on the edge of her bed, and watched her carefully. Clara fidgeted under his gaze, then returned her attention to her book. When she finished the plate of cookies, the Doctor hurried to bring her more. When she asked for coffee, the Doctor gladly brought her a mug filled to the brim with it.

"Well," Clara murmured. "Let's see if you make decent coffee."

And so the Doctor watched her expectantly, until she grinned at him.

"Not bad, Chin," she teased. "For an alien, at least."

The second sentence was lost in a fit of coughing. The Doctor, being nearly the opposite of a real Doctor, had no idea what to do except pat her back and rub her arm. When she stopped coughing, she leaned against him for a while, sipping at her coffee, munching on Jammie Dodgers.

"I know what'll make you feel better!" the Doctor said. "Fish fingers and custard!"

He leaped (literally leaped) out of the room, and returned moments later with a bowl of custard and a plate of fish fingers. Clara made a face.

"That doesn't look too good."

But the Doctor poked the food at her mouth, and she had no choice but to open her mouth, bite it, and swallow it. To her surprise, it didn't taste bad at all.

"Huh," she said. "It's actually kind of addicting."

After around ten minutes, she fell asleep again.

The Doctor took the food from her hands, and set them down quietly on her bed stand. Then he gently pulled the covers out from under her and laid them down on Clara's sleeping form.

He gazed down at her for a very, very long minute. Then he leaned down and pressed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Clara."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I'm going to try something new. Well...I've kind of already done this for chapter 1 and 2, but I'm going to stop the collection of one-shots for the next few chapters, and write a longer story that'll take up 4 chapters or so. For now that'll be the approximate length, but it may be shorter or longer. Reviews are very much appreciated, and prompts still are too. :)**

_Doctor, stop fidgeting. Doctor, stop spitting your drink out. Doctor, stop pacing the area. Doctor, get some sleep. Doctor, don't destroy the TV...again._

Those were merely a few of the things Clara had scolded the Doctor for in the first hour of their trip. And now, five hours in, she had already decided they should've taken the TARDIS instead.

_"I want a normal vacation,"_ Clara had said. _"No aliens, no sonic screwdriver, no nearly dying. Which means definitely no TARDIS."_ Pfft. She wished she could travel back to that day and whack her younger self on the head.

_Normal vacation?_ she would've said. _Like that'll ever happen with the Doctor around._

She should've known better than to drag a thousand-year-old alien onto an airplane. Before they had even gotten seated, Clara knew the trip would be a long one. The Doctor wanted fish fingers and custard. That earned them quite a lot of weird looks. Then he wanted Jammie Dodgers and bananas. Some people began to scoot away from them. And then he stood up and began pacing the room, muttering under his breath and scanning random old people with his sonic screwdriver. Luckily, it was a small plane that only seated a few people, and so only a very teeny-tiny portion of the world were being creeped out by the Doctor.

"He your brother then?" one of the ladies asked Clara.

"Uh, no, he's a friend," Clara answered.

The woman snorted. "Good luck with him."

"Actually," Clara defended. "He's a very, very brave man. And, trust me, he's usually not this weird. He's an adventurer, he's not used to being cramped up in planes for hours. In fact, he's probably saved _you_ more times than you can count."

"Really..." the woman said skeptically, turning back around in her seat disdainfully.

Clara huffed at her, but bit her lip in case something rude or threatening accidentally spilled out. Then someone cleared their throat. Clara glanced up. An old man was shuffling by. He smiled kindly at her.

"I believe you," he whispered. "I was an adventurer once myself."

Clara blinked, surprised, and smiled at him. She was about to open her mouth to reply, when the Doctor suddenly appeared, sliding into his seat. The old man winked and walked away.

"Hello, Clara!" the Doctor said. "Enjoying your flight?"

Clara narrowed her eyes at him. "Quite."

"Well, I'm not," the Doctor muttered, happy attitude vanishing. "We should've taken the TARDIS."

Clara sighed. "I want a normal vacation, Doctor." She lowered her voice. "No aliens. No cybermen, or ghosts, or dinosaurs, or fish people. Just a normal couple of weeks in Paris. Come on, it'll be fun."

The Doctor sighed, and slumped in his seat, appearing defeated. "When do we get there?" he whined.

"Be patient," Clara scolded, as if she were talking to Angie or Artie.

"I hate being patient."

* * *

At first, it was just the slight trembling of the plane. The captain quickly announced it was nothing but turbulence, and that everyone should stay calm, but Clara could tell by the expression on the Doctor's face that something was wrong.

"Doctor?" she asked.

"Yes?" the Doctor glanced down at her.

"Something's wrong with the plane, huh?" she whispered.

"Don't worry about it," the Doctor replied in a low voice. He paused. "Why are we whispering?"

Clara shrugged. "I dunno. Just felt like a whispering time."

She leaned back in her seat, and gazed out her window. The sky was a bright blue, and the clouds were puffy white, streaked with pink and orange. Nothing seemed wrong. Everything seemed perfect. But Clara clutched at the armrest. She had no idea what had happened to the plane, but it definitely wasn't _right_.

The Doctor seemed to sense her nervousness. He reached out a hand and gripped her fingers tightly. "You heard the Captain," he told her, smirking as the thought of Captain Jack Harkness came to mind. "He said everything's fine. It's just turbulence."

"Right. Just turbulence."

Clara muttered that sentence to herself over and over again, until she truly believed that nothing was wrong. She released her grip on the Doctor's hand and relaxed.

"Okay," the Doctor murmured. "You're alright?"

"Yeah," Clara replied, smiling up at him.

Perhaps she spoke too soon. The plane suddenly jolted to the right, smashing Clara against the wall. She let out a shriek as the plane kept tilting, up and up. There was a frantic crackling over the loudspeaker, and a cluster of voices, but there was no reassurance from the crew.

"Stay calm, stay calm," the Doctor said. He leaped out of his seat, and began making his way up the aisle.

"Are you insane?" Clara shouted after him. "Get back here, this instant!"

But he had vanished. Clara peered after him, desperate to know where he had gone. Soon enough, though, the plane righted itself, and Clara let her breath out. She stood up cautiously, to find that the Doctor had appeared again. He quickly pushed her back into her seat.

"Buckle your seatbelt," he told her. "Now."

Clara was slightly worried by his sudden serious attitude, but buckled up her seatbelt obediently.

Just as she did, the seatbelt light flickered on, and all the other lights suddenly dimmed. At that moment, everyone decided to begin panicking.

"What's happening?" the woman in front of Clara exclaimed.

"I knew something was wrong the moment I stepped foot on this plane!" another woman declared.

"We're going to crash!" a little girl shrieked. "We're all going to die!"

"Shush up, Allison!" her mother hissed. "You'll be fine!"

"She's right! The little girl's right!" the second woman wailed. "We're all doomed!"

"We're not doomed!" a man told her. "Not completely yet."

"We basically are," another man, much younger, said.

"Panicking won't do you any good!" the old man declared.

"And what do you know about that?" a teenage boy around the age of Angie challenged.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

And everyone did, turning their gazes to the Doctor. Clara raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't say anything.

"The Captain hasn't said anything yet, how do you know we're all doomed?" the Doctor demanded.

There was a shrug of the shoulders from everyone.

"Exactly," the Doctor continued. "The seatbelt light is on for our protection, not because we're crashing. There's a difference, yeah? Nobody is dying today. The plane is fine, all it was was a...a..."

"Bird crash!" Clara filled in.

"Yes! A bird most likely collided with the plane, there's nothing wrong. Nobody should be panicking. It won't do you any good, anyway, even if we were falling to our deaths. Now, listen here, everyone. Sit down, buckle your seatbelts, shut your mouths, and wait. I don't want to hear a single peep out of-"

And that was when the plane erupted in chaos.

It tilted again, this time very dangerously, and began plummeting. Clara felt queasy. She had never liked the sensation of falling. Bags fell from their storage places, people slid from their seats, all screaming and shrieking, or, in the little girl's case, crying for her mother.

"What's happening?" Clara demanded.

"Ah," the Doctor replied. "You know how I said a bird _most likely_ collided with the plane?"

"Yes?"

"Well, it was a most likely, so probably, we're wrong, which can only mean-"

Then the plane hit the ground, and the explosion was so huge that Clara's teeth rattled, and she felt like someone was shaking her brain around in her head, as if making some sort of milkshake.

Through the dust and flames, she noticed a huge book fall from the luggage container. Straight for the Doctor.

She lunged out, and tackled him, knocking him to the side just in time.

There was a momentary blinding pain in her head.

Then everything went black.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I'll try to work the prompts into the next few chapters. And sorry I didn't manage to get the bow tie one in yet :)**

The Doctor pressed the towel to Clara's forehead, his hearts beating faster than they had even when he realized they were crashing.

"Oh, my Impossible Girl," he murmured, stroking Clara's hair. "My brave Impossible Girl."

Clara twitched slightly under his touch, and her eyelashes fluttered.

"Hey! You!" The Doctor glanced up to find one of the men standing near the wreckage. "Help us out?"

The Doctor looked back down at Clara, hesitating.

"She'll be fine!" the man shouted. "We've got a doctor on board, but we need your help getting him out. Come on, move it!"

The Doctor pressed Clara to his chest for a moment, patted her head, then set her back down.

"No more stupid acts of heroism, yeah?" he whispered, standing up, and heading towards the ruined plane, his gaze tearing away from Clara to examine the damage. A lot of the plane was up in flames, and the Doctor winced at the thought of how many people must have lost their lives.

_"Nobody is dying today,"_ he had promised. A promise broken in a heartbeat.

There were a small group of four people, not including the Doctor and Clara, gathered around the wreckage.

"Who's in there?" he asked the man next to him.

"The little girl and the old man."

"Who's died?" the Doctor pressed.

"The teenage boy, his father, and the little girl's mother in the economy class. They got out, but...too many injuries," the man said quietly. "The whole of first class was the center of the crash, along with the Captain and the rest of the crew."

"Oh," the Doctor murmured, not quite sure what to say. He cleared his throat. "Better get the others out, then."

He whipped out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the plane.

"What _is_ that?" the man asked.

The Doctor didn't answer, and instead examined the results. "Don't move that piece, it'll collapse in on itself and kill the people inside, if they're not already dead. That piece is safe. Don't even touch that one, the one next to it is fine, as long as you don't pull it out completely..."

He glanced up. The man had already set to work. The Doctor sighed, and followed, climbing into the plane cautiously.

"This is dangerous," he warned the men who had volunteered to go in. "You could all easily die."

"We know that," a red-haired man said.

The Doctor watched as they shined their flashlights through the plane. He scanned the plane again, and this time, found the trace of a small girl nearly hidden under a large suitcase. He spun around.

"She's over there!" he announced.

"How do you know?" the men behind him asked.

"Because. Just because!" he ducked under a doorway that was now misformed, and reached over to heave the suitcase away. He tossed it to one of the men. "Take that, there should be useful things in it."

Sure enough, the little girl was unconscious on the ground, her blonde hair turned grey with ash and dust, a large cut running down her cheek.

"Ouch," the Doctor muttered. "That'll leave a scar."

He gently picked the girl up and began making his way out of the plane, the other two men heaving suitcases in their arms, looking flustered. Once the Doctor reached the opening, he stuck his arms out to the nearest woman, who looked slightly startled at his sudden appearance. Luckily, though, she had enough sense to take the girl and set her down next to Clara. Then he took the suitcases from the two men and threw them out onto the grass. A few seconds later, the red-haired man returned with the old man, who the Doctor announced perfectly fine, just unconscious and probably shocked.

"Where's the other one?" the Doctor asked. As if on cue, the other man appeared as well, hauling bags and suitcases with him. He gave a brief nod to the Doctor and exhaled.

"Well," he said, sticking out his hand. "We might as well get to know each other, since we're going to be stuck here for a while. I'm John."

At this, the Doctor beamed. "John? Wonderful name! I'm the Doctor!"

John gave him a strange look. "So you're a doctor too?"

"No," the Doctor corrected. "I'm the Doctor. Who's your friend, then?"

John gestured towards the redhead. "That's Stephan."

"Nice to meet you, Stephan!"

"I'm Genevieve," one of the women introduced, walking over to join them, blonde ponytail swinging. "And that's my mum, Laurel." She nodded towards the old lady, who was now meditating peacefully. "The little girl was Allison, if I heard right."

"_Is_ Allison," the Doctor immediately said. "She's not dead."

Genevieve's eyebrows shot up. "Oh," she said simply. "That's great!" she then added after a moment of thought.

"What about your friend?" Stephan asked.

"Clara Oswin Oswald!" the Doctor announced. "But you can call her Clara." Then he blinked. "Clara..." He rushed away, abandoning the others, and kneeled back next to her on the cool, moist grass. "Hey," he murmured, lifting her head up and setting it on his lap. "You're going to be alright. We all will. You hear that, Clara? We'll all be fine."

Another long minute passed, and then Clara's eyes blinked open. "Doctor?" she muttered.

"Ha! Hello! How are you?"

Clara yawned, then seemed to fully notice he was there. She reached up a hand and slapped him.

"Oi!" he protested, expression morphing into one of a sad puppy's. "What was that for?"

Clara frowned. "I dunno. For nearly getting hit by a dictionary?" She rubbed her head. "My head hurts," she complained.

"Well, it's stopped bleeding. And the cut isn't too deep, thank goodness."

Clara sat up and stretched. Immediately, she swayed, and began falling to the side. The Doctor reached out and steadied her.

"Alright, you're lying back down," he instructed. Clara obediently collapsed back onto the grass, then glanced around.

"Is anyone else hurt?" she asked. The Doctor sighed.

"Don't worry yourself about that. Sleep."

Once he had made sure Clara's eyes were closed and that her breathing became slow and steady again, he turned to the young girl, Allison. He scanned her with his sonic, and realized that other than the cut on her cheek and a twisted wrist, there was nothing serious. He dabbed the towel at her face, then dumped some water from a water bottle onto the cut, which washed away the blood almost instantly. She opened her eyes drowsily.

"Hello," she said. "You're the weird man on the plane. Where's my mum?"

The Doctor frowned. "Go back to sleep, Allison."

Being a child, she fell back asleep immediately, curling up on her side.

"Oh, no, no, no," the Doctor said. "That'll make your cheek worse."

He adjusted her so that she was flat on her back again, then smiled.

"Well, then. Being a doctor sure isn't as fun as being the Doctor. But I suppose it's okay."

When Clara finally woke again, it was sometime during sunset. A large fire had been started, and a few small shelters had been built. Someone with them must have been skilled. Clara stood up, steadied herself, and found that her headache had nearly disappeared completely. She made her way to the small group of people, and nearly tripped over a little girl.

"Oh!" Clara said, startled. She kneeled next to her, and examined her. "You're Allison, right?"

The girl fidgeted in her sleep.

Clara smiled, then stood back up. Four people and one Time Lord were sitting near the fire, murmuring something in low voices. When they caught sight of Clara, they stopped talking and smiled at her.

"You're up and about, then?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah," Clara replied. Everyone stood up and approached her carefully as if she were an injured animal.

"Hooray, introductions!" the Doctor announced, beaming.

There was a murmuring of "My name is..." and "Nice to meet you..." and Clara found out the woman who had sneered at her earlier wasn't too bad at all.

"I'm Clara," Clara introduced.

"We know," everyone said unison.

This caused for Clara to narrow her eyes at the Doctor. "What did you tell them?" she demanded.

"Nothing! Just your name! Right?" he glanced at John.

"Clara Oswin Oswald, that's all he said," John promised.

"_Clara Oswin Oswald?_" Clara poked the Doctor in the chest. "So all this time and you still haven't gotten my name right."

The Doctor looked sheepish. "Old habit. Very old habit. Since Victorian London, actually..."

After that, they settled into a comfortable conversation, keeping their voices low as to not wake up Allison. Soon enough, Clara asked about food. Apparently, that night, there was no dinner, except for a few candies, sandwiches, and water. When everyone had gulped some of that down, they settled to bed.

Clara peered at the Doctor through one eye. He sat by the fire, poking and tending to it, staring at the stars. Clara couldn't help but notice how lonely he looked. And so she crawled over to his side and plopped down next to him.

"Who died?" she whispered after a long minute.

"The boy, his father, and Allison's mother. The whole of first class. The Captain and the crew."

Clara looked slightly surprised. Then she blinked. "No, I didn't mean that. I meant..._who died?_"

The Doctor gazed at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...your companions," she said tentatively, afraid the Doctor would break or just simply lose it.

"Oh," the Doctor murmured. "You're afraid you will, huh?"

"No, no," Clara said. "I...I was just curious. You don't have to tell me. I just wanted to know."

The Doctor stroked her hair. "Oh, Clara," was all he said. Clara took the hint and kept quiet. Then she glanced over at his bow tie.

"Why do you wear bow ties?" she finally asked. The Doctor glanced at her, and his face broke into a grin.

"Because they're cool!"

Clara smiled. "Teach me," she requested. The Doctor frowned.

"What?"

"How does the bow tie work?"

"Oh," the Doctor said flatly. He cleared his throat, then tugged on the edge of his bow tie until it came loose. "I'll show you!" He drooped the edges around Clara's bare neck. Clara giggled, not quite expecting this.

"The right side has to be a bit longer!" he announced, tugging on the edge of the ribbon. Then he crossed the ribbon into an X-form, while Clara struggled to see what was happening. As he worked, he began narrating what he was doing, going into extreme detail, even to the origins of how that step was created. When they neared the end, the Doctor made a complicated-looking knot. Clara coughed.

"Doctor, that's too tight," she said. The Doctor quickly loosened it a bit, adjusted it, then stepped back to admire his work.

"Now you try!"

He reached over to pull the edges loose, then handed the ribbon to Clara. Clara got as far as tying half of the bow tie into place, but she had no idea what the Doctor had did after that. The Doctor reached out his hands and guided hers, looping ribbon across ribbon, until Clara just simply let her hands be tugged around.

"There," the Doctor finally said. "It looks perfect."

Clara stroked the bow tie and grinned. "Can I keep it?" she asked.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Can you...well...it's..."

Clara gave him her biggest puppy dog eyes, and the Doctor smiled.

"Of course you can."

And so Clara snuggled into the Doctor's arm (which caused quite a bit of flailing) and fell asleep, the simple red bowtie tied around her simple red dress.

Perfect.

**Alright, hooray, end of part two of this story-arc. :D It's kinda late, and I'm sleepy, so basically sorry this chapter isn't that good. Thanks for reading! Love you all *blows kisses to computer***


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Sorry today's update is a little late, I slept in today, then realized we were to have guests over, which meant I had to clean the house like crazy (apparently my mom doesn't want a single speck of dirt on the walls) and then the guests were here the whole afternoon. Actually, they're still here, except I've managed to escape for a few minutes. This chapter was typed up with a _lot_ of interruptions, so there may be a few small typos or moments where something doesn't quite make sense. Well, enjoy anyway :)**

"Clara! Claaaaaara."

Clara blinked open one eye and glared at the person above her. When her vision came to focus, she found herself face-to-face with Allison. Immediately, her eyes snapped open and she sat up.

"Oh," she said. "Allison. Who...how...do you need something?"

"I can't sleep," Allison explained. Clara glanced at her watch (which was miraculously still working) and found that it was only five in the morning. "The Doctor says you'll tell me a story," Allison continued. Clara rubbed her eyes and discovered she was no longer curled up against the Doctor. Instead, she was by herself next to a pile of ashes. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.

"Where is he?" Clara asked.

"He and Mister John went to look for food," Allison said, sitting back on her heels. "Can you tell me a story?"

Clara yawned and stretched. "Well," she replied. "I'll do my best, I suppose."

She began debating on which story to tell her. At first, she had a children's story in mind, like Cinderella, or Peter Pan. Then she realized Allison had probably heard those stories plenty of times already. Should Clara tell her about her adventures? Allison looked only seven or so. Would the stories scare her?

"Once upon a time," Clara finally said, deciding she would take the risk. "There was a huge, beautiful planet."

"Earth?" Allison asked, settling into a more comfortable position.

"No. It was called Gallifrey. And on this planet lived aliens called Time Lords and Time Ladies."

"Aliens? Were they green?"

"They looked just like humans. Or, as some say, humans look just like them. These Time Lords and Time Ladies ruled the galaxies. They were so powerful, everyone was scared of them. Monsters had nightmares about them. But one day, the big bad Daleks came. These Daleks were scary. They were big, red and white and green and grey. There was a huge war, and although everyone was fierce and brave, Gallifrey was destroyed."

Allison's already big eyes grew even wider.

"But there was a survivor," Clara quickly added. "A Time Lord whose name could not be spoken. He was the loneliest Time Lord who ever lived. He stole a magic machine called the TARDIS, which could travel in space and time. He could go anywhere he wished. And so he became a traveller, a savior of worlds. He was immortal, never dying. But this made him very sad."

"Why?" Allison asked innocently. "Isn't immortality a good thing?"

"He made many friends, mortal friends who could grow old, and would one day leave him. He was a sad man, Allison. In fact, he was so sad he retired. He began living on a cloud in Victorian London."

"That's silly," Allison giggled. "A cloud?"

"Oh, it's not silly at all. He drew away from the world. But little did he know, there was a certain governess who would drag him back to reality."

"Who?" Allison asked. "What governess?"

"Her name was Clara. Clara Oswin Oswald."

"That's you!" Allison exclaimed. "You're from Victorian London?"

"Oh, no. It wasn't me. Not exactly, at least. Hush, be patient. Listen. This governess took care of two children, one of them just slightly older than you. There was a pond behind their house. A pond where an ice lady lived. One day, the ice lady escaped. The Time Lord and Clara fought her, and defeated her. But Clara fell from the clouds-" for a second, Clara wondered if this would give the little girl nightmares "-and she passed on."

"She died?" Allison asked. "Like my mum?"

Clara opened and closed her mouth a few times, then cleared her throat. "Yes," she whispered, patting Allison's head. "But she's living in the sky now. Maybe she and your mum are friends."

Allison smiled. "I hope so. Maybe they're having tea. My mum liked tea."

Clara blinked, and sighed, pushing tears back from her eyes. "And so the Time Lord moved on. And then, one day, he appeared at my doorstep. He saved me from evil wifi people. He saved the whole world! And so I stepped into his TARDIS and went adventuring with him. I went to so many planets. One was called Akhaten. There were more aliens than you could count. But they were all very friendly. We went to a Russian submarine too, and we were stuck under the water for ages. And there was a big ice warrior on board too. But the Time Lord got us out. And there was another time when we went to Victorian Yorkshire, and saved the whole world from destruction. I nearly got turned into waxwork in the process."

"So he has a friend, now? The Time Lord?" Allison questioned.

"He has a friend. A friend who loves him with all her heart."

"So he's happy," Allison said, smiling.

"He's very happy."

* * *

Clara didn't remember falling asleep, but later, when she blinked her eyes open, it was sometime nearly noon. Allison was still curled up in her arms. Clara patted her head, then set the little girl onto the ground. She stood up, and immediately, a raspberry was plopped into her mouth. She jumped, startled, and spun around to face the Doctor, who was beaming at her.

"Good morning, Clara!" he greeted.

"Doctor, you can't just randomly stuff a raspberry in my mouth as a good-morning-greeting," Clara scolded. "You scared me. And besides, it just might happen that I hate raspberries."

At this, the Doctor's face fell. "You do?"

Clara glared him down for another ten seconds, then sighed. "Okay, I love them, but that's not the point."

"Oh, come on, Clara," the Doctor said. "Don't make such a big deal about it. I have good news!"

Clara studied him curiously. "Good news? What?"

"We're not going to starve!" he announced happily. "John brought back a deer, and there's a raspberry bush just a few minutes north."

Clara exhaled loudly. "And the bad news is?"

The Doctor frowned. "There _is_ no bad news!" he protested.

Clara gave him the look, and he quickly cowered behind the bag of berries. "Okay, okay," he finally said. "Bad news. Apparently we're in the middle of nowhere. No towns in sight, or houses, or anything."

Clara groaned. "Wonderful," she muttered.

"Actually, our situation isn't that horrible. We're quite lucky, actually."

Clara frowned at him. "Why were you looking for food at five in the morning today?"

"What did you tell Allison?" the Doctor asked, ignoring her question.

"I...I told her about our adventures," Clara replied hesitantly. "Why?"

"Good," the Doctor replied, plopping another raspberry in her mouth. Clara bit into it, chewed slowly, and swallowed.

"Why'd you tell her to come to me?"

The Doctor sighed. "I wanted you to tell her our story. So that you could remember all the times when things seemed hopeless, and how every time we got out of it safe and sound." Then he smiled at her. "We'll get out of this too, Clara, I promise."

For some random reason, that made Clara leap up and wrap her arms around the Doctor. This time, there was no flailing. She smiled as the Doctor squeezed her tight. They stood there for quite a long time, arms around each other. Then the Doctor pushed her away gently and held her at arm's length. He grinned when he saw the bow tie.

"You're still wearing it," he observed. Clara's hand shot up to her neck.

"So I am," she agreed.

* * *

It was sometime in the afternoon did Clara fully face their situation. They were in the wild, probably miles from the track the airplane should've went on. It had veered to the side too much. The rescue helicopters would most likely skip around them. There was food, that was good, but their water would run out soon. And so would the berries. And then, of course, the panicking would start.

"Stephan," Clara said suddenly, turning to the man sitting next to her. "When John and the Doctor came back, did they...mention finding any sources of water?"

Stephan frowned, thinking, then shook his head slowly. "Not that I know of," he replied. "Don't worry yourself, though. We'll get out of this, I know we will."

Clara puffed her cheeks out and exhaled, probably looking like some sort of demented chipmunk.

"Stephan!"

Clara glanced up. John was standing near a hill, waving his hand.

"Stephan, come up here for a second, will you?" Genevieve called pleasantly.

"GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OVER HERE!" Laurel practically shrieked when Stephan hesitated. He quickly rose to his feet, set a reassuring hand on Clara's shoulder, and left. Clara watched the three of them for a while, then jumped to her feet.

"Alright," she murmured. "I'll make myself useful. Water sources, huh? There's gotta be some around here."

She stuffed some empty bottles of water into a bag and quickly slipped out of the camp, keeping her head low as she travelled through the tall grasses. Soon enough, she came to a small patch of trees that offered protection against the sunlight. Clara gratefully entered the woods, and glanced around her. She heard a small trickle of water, but it seemed to be coming from every direction at once.

"You can't hide forever," Clara called into the shadows.

A peaceful bird song answered her, and suddenly, a small hummingbird appeared in front of her, wings flapping frantically, creating a bee-like buzzing sound.

"Hello," Clara greeted, smiling. "Are you going to show me the river?"

The bird tweeted at her, then took off, zipping through the trees.

"Oi!" Clara shouted, chasing after it. "Wait up!"

She kept running until her legs ached and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She gasped for breath, and set her head between her hands for a long minute. The hummingbird fluttered to her side, and flew around her head, as if telling her to hurry up.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Clara grumbled, forcing her legs to move again. The trickling of water was getting louder now, and soon, the trickle turned to the sound of heavy currents. But Clara still couldn't tell where it was coming from. The bird suddenly took to the sky, disappearing within a few seconds.

"Well then," Clara shouted at it. "Thanks for getting me lost!"

She sighed and trudged forward a few steps, crashing through the bushes and vines. Immediately, her mouth fell open. A river rushed before her, a river wider than a whole state, probably. The waves were tipped with white, but the rest of the water looked clear and blue. Clear enough that Clara could see small golden fish wriggling around.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

"What do you mean, she just disappeared?" the Doctor hissed. "You turned your back on her for what, two seconds? How is that possible?"

John, Stephan, and Genevieve stood before him, heads bowed, as if they were expecting some sort of horrible punishment. Laurel was meditating somewhere on the hill. Allison was sitting to the side, watching them, her grey eyes wide. The Doctor spun to face her.

"Did you see anything?" he demanded.

"N-nothing," Allison whispered. "I was sleeping."

"Well, I have to go look for her," the Doctor decided. He spun on his heel and marched away from the camp. When the others made to follow him, he pointed his finger at them.

"Stay where you are," he said. "I don't need more people disappearing."

Leaving them slightly flustered, the Doctor stomped through the grass (flattening a lot of it, and most likely killing quite a lot of bugs) and into the forest. He blinked. It was huge, with trees covering every inch of it. How was he supposed to find Clara here?

"Clara!" he shouted, glancing around him. "Clara, where are you?"

A small hummingbird appeared at his side, and tweeted something.

"You saw her?" the Doctor asked.

_Bzzzztweeeeet._

"Where? Where is she?"

The hummingbird flew off, leaving the Doctor to rush after it.

After running for quite a while, skimming both his knees and scraping both his hands on thorns, the hummingbird disappeared. The Doctor looked around at his surroundings. He was in the exact same place he started. His mouth fell open in indignation.

"You little Dalek!" he shouted at the hummingbird, who was most likely long gone by now, laughing at him.

"Excuse me?"

The Doctor jumped, and spun around to find Clara standing there, looking quite confused, and slightly hurt.

"Clara!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Where in the world have you been? Do you know how worried I was?"

Clara gave him a small smile. "I found a river," she said tentatively. It came out more as a question. The Doctor froze for a second. A river. A river... he whacked himself, and told himself to snap out of it. He reached forward and grabbed Clara's shoulders, shaking them slightly, but not hard enough to injure her.

"So you just decided to run off without telling anyone?" he growled. "I was panicking back there!"

"It's not like anyone would've listened. You were picking raspberries, Laurel was meditating, Allison was sleeping, and everyone else was tinkering with something."

"Then you should've waited!" the Doctor shouted. Clara's innocent look was replaced by hurt.

"I found a river, Doctor. And a very clear one, at that. Aren't you at least a little thankful?"

The Doctor sighed, grabbed Clara's hand, and turned to head back to camp. Clara yanked her hand out of his, though, and as the Doctor glanced at her, she ripped the bow tie off of her neck, sulking behind him. This small motion slightly broke the Doctor's hearts, as Clara had never done that before, but he shook his head and continued walking.

"You found Clara!" Allison said the moment they returned. She ran up to Clara and hugged her, and Clara's scowl disappeared for a moment. She patted Allison's head, but when her eyes met the Doctor's, the frown was back.

"I found water," she announced, tugging the water bottles out of her bag. Immediately, everyone brightened up, all happy with the fact that they weren't going to die of dehydration any time soon. "And I'm hungry," she added, flicking a piercing look at the Doctor. "Find any berries?" she practically hissed.

The Doctor swallowed hard, said nothing, and handed the bag of raspberries to her. She picked a few pieces out and dumped them in her mouth, then handed the bag back, turned sharply, and walked off to sulk near the remains of the fire. She stayed like that for nearly half the day.

"What's with her, then?" Genevieve asked a few hours later, tilting her head. "She's usually not like that, right?"

The Doctor sighed. "I snapped at her. By accident. She's upset with me."

Genevieve glanced at him, shocked. "And you're not going to apologize?"

"She'll get over it," the Doctor told her. "And if I do try to apologize, she'll just punch me or something."

Genevieve rolled her eyes. "You really don't get girls," she muttered, walking off to join Clara. The Doctor frowned after her, confused, until Allison tugged on his coat. He glanced down at her.

"She likes you," Allison said in a stage-whisper.

"Of course she likes me, she's my friend, I like her too," the Doctor muttered.

"No," Allison said. "She really, really likes you."

"And how do you know that?" the Doctor crossed his arms.

"She told me so," Allison replied. "She said she loves you with all her heart."

The Doctor stared at her for a long minute, then glanced over at Clara, who seemed to be watching him out of the corner of her eye. He sighed, and rubbed his forehead.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," he said as he made his way over.

Clara looked up at him when he approached, and raised an eyebrow.

"Here to apologize?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said. Clara exhaled loudly.

"You could've at least said thanks, you know," she murmured.

"Thanks," the Doctor said miserably. Clara studied him.

"Your chin looks big when you're sad," she commented. Usually, the Doctor would've defended his precious chin, but this time, his face broke into a smile.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," Clara replied, poking his face. "Mister Chin." She held up the loose bow tie. "Help?"

The Doctor's smile grew even wider as he crouched down to twist the tie around Clara's neck. She gave him a small smile.

"How does it look?" she asked.

"_Cool_," the Doctor said.


	9. Chapter 9

They were looking for food when it first happened.

It was sometime in the afternoon, on their third day, when the sun was practically burning through their skin. The trees offered a slight protection, but also seemed to tease them, letting sudden bursts of light through their leaves at random moments.

"Doctor, look!"

Clara tugged on his coat sleeve and pointed at a small flickering shape in the shadows. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at the bushes, then raised his sonic screwdriver and scanned the area. There was a bird fluttering around in the leaves, its wings broken. John quickly raised his makeshift spear and was about to throw it, but Clara shot him a look.

"Wait," she whispered. She began tip-toeing over, careful not to scare the small creature. The Doctor watched as she vanished behind the bushes, then appeared moments later with a small hummingbird in her hand. "It's the bird that showed me the river," she said.

"The bird that I accidently called a Dalek," the Doctor muttered.

Clara stroked the bird's wing. "You poor, poor thing," she cooed. "Don't worry, we'll get you patched up soon."

"No, Clara, wait," the Doctor scanned the bird. "It might carry a disease. I don't want you getting sick."

Clara rolled her eyes. "It's just a broken wing, Doctor."

The Doctor sighed and examined his results. "Okay, so maybe it is. Then it'll heal on its own!"

Clara gave him the look. The Doctor ducked behind his screwdriver.

"Oh no, not the look, Clara." He pouted. "Fine. You can keep the bird. But we still need food."

Clara tucked the bird into her bag, and continued heading forward. "Alright," she said. "So we'll find food."

They continued heading forward, but they had only managed a few steps, when Clara suddenly stopped walking. The Doctor glanced at her, and found her pawing through her bag.

"Clara? Are you okay?"

"The bird! It's disappeared!" she said. "It was here five seconds ago."

"It must have dropped out of the bag," John said, glancing around him. "Maybe it's behind us somewhere."

Clara backtracked a little, but the bird was nowhere in sight.  
"Huh," she said. "That's strange."

"Very strange," the Doctor muttered. "Come on, let's go, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this."

As if the weather agreed with him, a sudden wind blew through the area, and dark, thick clouds began gathering.

"Back to camp?" Clara whispered.

"Yeah."

They turned quickly and began hurrying back, flinching at every small twig snap. The Doctor yanked a few berries off their bushes, and John sighted a rabbit thumping the ground with its hind leg, but other than that, everything was eerily...quiet. No bird song, no bee buzzing, not even the rumbling of thunder. Nothing.

"This is freaky," Clara whispered. "I'm kinda scared."

The Doctor reached over and took her hand reassuringly, but he could still see Clara's eyes flickering around the forest.

There were times when the Doctor saw glimpses of shadows that shouldn't be there, or eyes peering out of the bushes. But they would always disappear the moment he set his gaze on them.

The forest seemed to get darker with every step they took, and soon enough, it was almost as if the sun had vanished.

Then the rain started pouring.

And it wasn't just rain. It was blue rain.

* * *

"That's not natural, is it?" Clara shouted over the thunder and splattering of water. She held out a hand and watched as the dark blue liquid pooled in her palm. Before the Doctor could say anything, a large streak of lightning hit the tree right next to them. Clara jumped out of the way just as the tree toppled over.

It lay in the middle of the path, blocking Clara from joining the Doctor and John. She couldn't climb it, it was flickering fire.

"What do I do?" Clara asked, frantically pushing her wet hair out of her face.

"Can you go around it?" the Doctor shouted, standing on his toes to see Clara. She turned her head to the left and was about to step forward, when a sudden burst of fire blocked her path. She turned to her right. Another fire spluttered to life.

"I can't!" Clara screamed. "It's as if the storm is alive! It's blocking my path!"

Then she noticed something. The water wasn't falling anywhere near the fire.

"It is alive!" she shouted to the Doctor.  
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" the Doctor bellowed.

"THE STORM IS ALIVE!" Clara said, jumping up and down. "WHAT DO I DO?"

"STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE!"

Clara opened her mouth to protest, but the Doctor and John had vanished. "Doctor!"

She glanced around her. The fire had spread behind her as well, and was slowly inching towards the center. She stuck an arm above the fire and found the air was perfectly dry.

"What are you?" she whispered.

The fire began spiraling into the air, higher and higher. Then it struck down, hitting the ground only a foot away from Clara. Clara jumped, startled. The fire hissed loudly, as if annoyed by the fact she wasn't dead yet.

"Doctor!" she shouted. "Doctor, help!"

There was no reply. Clara crouched and curled into a ball, burying her face into her knees. She could feel the heat press against her, closer and closer, and closer...

Then, suddenly, ice-cold water was dumped on her head, and a pair of strong arms yanked her back. The fire hissed and wailed, then died out.

Clara scrambled to her feet, and turned to face her savior.

But other than a few ribbons of smoke, she was alone.

* * *

"A man? Was it a man?"

"Ice water? Where could he have gotten ice water?"

"The fire was alive?"

"The storm was alive?"

Clara pressed her hands over her face, overwhelmed by the flood of questions. The Doctor wrapped a protective arm around her, and glared at the others.

"Clara needs rest," he said. "She almost died today. All of you, shoo, go talk about something else."

Everyone reluctantly stomped away, grumbling. The Doctor waited until they were gone, then pressed a finger under Clara's chin and tilted her face up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Clara answered. "You've asked me that about ten million times already."

"I'm just worried," the Doctor said. "Clara, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

Clara nodded. "Of course."

The Doctor examined her for another minute, then sighed.

"Do you ever regret it?" he asked.

"Regret what?"

"Running away with me? You could be leading a perfectly normal life right now. You wouldn't be in so much danger. You could be at home right now, baking a souffle."

Clara frowned at him. "Running with you has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. Doctor, I don't want to have a normal life. Normal's boring."

The Doctor lowered his head. "But Clara, aren't you scared? At all?"

Clara gave him an exasperated look. "Doctor, I've died for you thousands of times. Do you think I would leave just because I'm scared?"

"I would rather you leave on your own accord, than-"

"Doctor, I'm not going anywhere!"

The Doctor was quiet for a long time. He glanced up and looked into Clara's eyes. They stared at each other for a silent minute. Without even knowing it, the Doctor found himself leaning closer.

"OI! Doctor!"

Immediately, Clara jumped back, startled. The Doctor glanced up to see Laurel frowning at him in disapproval. The Doctor sighed and shook his head. Clara giggled, slightly uncomfortable.

"Well," she said. "I..."

She fidgeted with her hands, and an awkward silence unfolded between them.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor looked up again, this time grateful. Matthew was standing a few feet away, looking quite embarrassed. "Sorry for interrupting, but I was wondering if you could help me with something? You've got that...that buzzing thing, and I thought maybe..."

"Oh! Of course," the Doctor said, standing up and brushing dirt off his pants. "I'll be back soon, Clara."

Clara smiled at him, then leaned up and planted a tiny kiss on his mouth. She watched his reaction (he flailed quite a lot, his eyes wide) and then quickly walked off, grinning.

The Doctor's jaw was open for another solid twenty seconds.

**Agh, sorry the quality of this chapter isn't that good, I was kinda rushing, and I also had a severe case of writer's block today :( **


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Okay, I think I said something about this story arc being four chapter wapters? Well, since I introduced the whole freak weather weird blue rain killer fire thing, I've decided it's gonna be longer than four chapters...maybe five? Six? Seven? I'm not quite sure yet...Oh, and sorry there was no update yesterday :( My internet connection went all wibbly wobbly on me.**

The freak weather didn't return for another two days. In fact, nobody thought it would come back, but within a few minutes in that afternoon, 48 hours after the first incident, the rain began pouring. Except this time it was the most vibrant shade of green.

"I don't get it," the Doctor complained. "I _hate_ not getting things."

Clara put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, and gave him a small smile.

"It's called being normal," she informed him. The rain got worse. Everyone ducked into their shelters, but the water splattering against the roof soon brought most of them down. At least the lightning and thunder hadn't started yet. The sky above them was still a brilliant blue.

Clara and the Doctor's shelter collapsed last, and when it did, Clara wrapped herself in her sweater and decided right then she would be in a grumpy mood for the rest of the day. The Doctor tried to entertain her while they waited for the weather to pass, but eventually, Clara just fell asleep.

And right then, the winds started blowing like mad.

It was already strong when it first began, but after a few minutes, the wind was so heavy that everyone had to grip something in their path to avoid being blown away. Clara woke up for that and became even more grumpier than Mr. Grumpy-face himself when he made an appearance.

"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked, clutching her hand tightly. Clara pouted at him.

"What do you _think_, Chin?" She snapped. Then, after a moment of silence, she spoke again. "I'm fine."

"So," John shouted somewhere next to them. "Is the weather really alive?"

A huge shrieking gust of wind blew at him, as if indignant he even had to ask.

"Don't anger it," the Doctor advised. "Just...keep calm. I don't actually think the weather is trying hurt us, I just think...we're in its way."

"In its way?" Clara asked, now gripping at the Doctor's coat. "What do you mean, in its way? Where would the weather be going to?"

"Shhhhhh! It'll go away soon. Just shhhh!"

Sure enough, after around ten minutes, the winds and rain died down to a gentle pattering of normal-colored water, the wind completely gone.

"Okay," the Doctor said, brushing his shirt off. "Is everyone safe?"

There was a quiet murmur. The Doctor scanned the area with his sonic screwdriver, peered at the results, then tucked the screwdriver away into his pocket, a slightly worried look on his face.

"What was that?" Matthew asked. "Never seen anything like it."

The Doctor glanced at him. "Something...impossible."

* * *

"Why was the water green?" Clara asked later in the night, when everyone had fallen asleep on the grass. The Doctor sighed and rubbed his head.

"Honestly? I don't know."

"Well, can't you find out? You're the Doctor, remember? You discover things?"

The Doctor chuckled and reached over to take Clara's hand.

"Yeah," he murmured. "That's what I do."

They stared up at the skies for a long time. There were only a few stars out. A few blinking lights in a vast ocean of darkness. It was a full moon that day, a round white disc hanging there, slightly lonely looking.

"Do you think the moon is lonely?" Clara asked suddenly. The Doctor didn't seem surprised by the question.

"Well, it has the Earth and stars. So no, not that much, I don't think."

"Doctor," Clara said, flipping over on her side so she could face him. "I told Allison you were happy. And I want to make sure I didn't lie to her. Are you happy?"

The Doctor stared at her for a long, long while. "I suppose I am," he replied softly. Clara rolled onto her back again.

"I'm cold," she announced. The Doctor smiled.

"I would imagine so," he said. He sat up and took off his coat, laying it down over Clara. It was nearly big enough to be a proper blanket. Clara beamed at him. Then her smile faltered.

"You're being nice," she observed.

"I'm always nice." But this sentence brought some sort of a depressed look onto his face.

And so Clara decided she would pretend to fall asleep just to avoid awkwardness.

The Doctor reached over and hugged her tightly. When he tried to set her back onto the ground, he discovered her arms wouldn't budge from their tight grip around his waist. The Doctor chuckled and flopped back down, patting Clara's back slowly. He sang a quiet Gallifreyan lullaby.

His plans were to wait for Clara to fall asleep, then get up and continue investigating the weather, but he found himself drifting off to unconsciousness. Maybe he really did need sleep. Maybe he should just let his eyes close.

* * *

When Clara woke up the next morning, she was curled up against someone's back. She froze, then flipped onto her side to face that someone.

"Doctor?" She whispered.

The Doctor didn't budge.

"Doctoooooor," Clara hissed, poking at his back. She crawled over to his other side, then poked his face. "Wake up, Chin."

After a few minutes of jabbing and poking, the Doctor let out a huge yawn and sat up, blinking.

"Good morning!" He immediately shouted. Clara slapped her hands over her ears.

"Shh!" she shushed.

"What?" the Doctor asked. "It is a good morning! Blue sky, no rain, no clouds. No aliens."

"Could you be just a little louder?" came Genevieve's annoyed and sarcastic voice as she sat up. "I'm not sure you woke everyone up yet."

Clara rolled her eyes, but smirked pointedly at the Doctor, only to find he had already run off, and was poking at the remains of the airplane. Clara hurried over, still wrapped in the Doctor's coat.

"OI!" she shouted. "Wait up!"

As soon as Clara kneeled down next to him, he jabbed a finger at the wing of the plane. "Look at that," he murmured. "Not natural. Definitely not natural."

Clara peered at the piece. There were two dashes scored deep, one red, the other glowing white. She clutched at her head. Serious deja-vu.

"Clara?" the Doctor glanced over at her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Clara murmured. "Fine. It's just...I feel like this has happened before."

...

_"What _is_ that?"_

_Clare prodded at the piece of metal with her hand, eyebrows scrunched together. Her little sister, Madelyn, plopped down next to her and watched silently._

_"Look!" Clare said. "Two marks. One blue, the other red. But why?"_

_"Magic!" Madelyn said._

_"No, not magic..." Clare muttered. "It's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't...I can't seem to..."_

_Then it came to her. She had learned this in school. A legend about the elements warring with each other, not just the normal elements, but stronger, way stronger than any human could imagine. And every time one of them was defeated..._

_Clare whacked herself on the head. "Then what? Once one of them is defeated..."_

_"Then their color gets scored into the metal!" Madelyn announced happily, jumping to her feet. Clare snapped her gaze over to examine the little girl._

_"How did you know that?" she demanded._

_Madelyn glanced at her._

_"I dunno. Just a random guess."_

_..._

"Clara! Clara?"

Clara blinked her eyes open, and gasped.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed. "I know what it is!"

"What _what_ is?"

Clara ran a hand along the wing. "Something like this happened in a past life," she murmured. "A legend I learned in school. Elements, not just normal elements, warring with each other. Once one of them is defeated, their color gets scored into a stone. Or, in our case, into the airplane. It's like a recording. But I don't think it's just the elements...I think it might be-"

"Aliens," the Doctor whispered. Clara glanced up at him.

"Aliens?"

"I've never seen anything like it," he murmured. "But I'm completely sure."

"Are they dangerous?" Clara asked, eyebrows knitting together in concern. The Doctor frowned.

"No, not really, unless you're in their battlefield. If you are, then they might mistake you for one of the enemies, and...well..."

"So that's what happened with the fire. It thought I was the earth or...or something."

The Doctor raised his eyes to meet hers. "Then we need to get out of here. Right now."

"...Doctor?"

_What in the world is he talking about?_

The Doctor grinned at her. "Basically, run."


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay, this is an author's note/warning/apology (I know I'm not supposed to do these as chapters...) but I just want to apologize for the fact I didn't update yesterday, and also warn you guys that I'm not going to be updating for a while. I'll be able to answer PM's and such occasionally, though :)**

** I'm a bit busy the rest of the week. BUT I'LL BE BACK SOON. Don't worry your whovian minds. XD And also, thanks so much for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following. And sorry for disappointing you guys by making you think this is a new chapter...*cowers in the corner* don't throw bananas at me!**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I'm back, I'm back, I'm back! With an extra long chapter! I just felt like this story arc has been going on for a quite a long time, and that I would just wrap it up with a long chapter instead of four new short chapters. I do have to admit that I don't think this chapter is my best chapter. And that the ending is kinda...well...not very good, but my writer's block came back, and I had honestly no idea what to write for the ending. So...yeah. XD**

They were already a mile away from the camp when Clara froze. The Doctor skidded to a halt and glanced back at her.

"Clara?" he said. "What's wrong?"

Clara rubbed her forehead. "We can't just leave them behind," she murmured. "Leave them to be killed."

The Doctor's gaze immediately softened. "Oh, Clara," he said. "Don't you understand? We're leading the aliens away. They think you're special, for some reason, they're going for you. The others will be safe." Then he hesitated. "But don't worry, you will too."

"How so?" Clara asked.

"We'll reason with them, of course!" the Doctor beamed, as if this were perfectly obvious.

"And if they don't listen?"

"We'll improvise!"

Clara sighed. "But, Doctor, what about Allison? She'll be devastated."

"She'll be fine," the Doctor promised.

"She's so lonely. I was talking to her the other day, you don't know how torn apart her family is. Her mum died in the crash, her father abandoned them, her brother disappeared...and she's only seven. When she gets back home, she won't have a family. She's been trying to hold it in, but..."

"Clara. Clara, look at me."

Clara glanced up at the Doctor.

"She'll be fine," the Doctor repeated. "They all will. You have to trust me. Clara, do you trust me?"

Clara didn't answer.

"Clara?"

Finally, she sighed. "Do you even have to ask?"

The Doctor smiled down at her, and took her hand.

"Then run."

* * *

Sometime in the evening, the Doctor and Clara came upon a small cave beside a rushing river. It was dark, and very tiny, but it would do for the night.

"When will they come?" Clara asked as the Doctor scanned the cave.

"I don't know..." the Doctor muttered. "Soon."

"Well," Clara replied. "That's...reassuring."

The Doctor glanced at her. "Clara," he said. "Are you scared?"

Clara was slightly startled by the question. She tilted her head. "No," she said after a long minute. "At least...I don't think so."

The Doctor sighed and studied her with an expression that Clara didn't quite understand. Ten seconds passed. Fifteen. Twenty. Thirty. Then he looked away.

"What was that look for?" Clara asked when the silence became unbearable. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at his sonic screwdriver, appearing to have slipped into his currently - deaf - please - do - not - disturb mode. Clara poked his arm a few times, but all he did was shush her. She exhaled loudly, leaned against a cave wall, and watched him pretend to be busy. Then, without warning, the Doctor's gaze snapped over at her, his arm shot out, grabbed her hand, and yanked her away. Clara stumbled. She would've fallen if it weren't for the Doctor's strong grip around her.

"Don't. Touch. The. Walls," the Doctor said. "No touchy walls."

Clara sank onto the floor, eyes wide. "O-okay," she stuttered. "I won't."

The Doctor slipped out of the cave. "I'm going to look for food. Stay there. Don't move. And I mean it. Okay? Don't move an inch."

Clara nodded obediently. For five minutes straight, she sat on the floor, shifting around slightly, talking to herself, and beginning to get extremely, incredibly bored. When the Doctor didn't return after fifteen minutes, Clara climbed to her feet and poked her head out of the cave.

"Doctor!" she called. "Are you out there anywhere?"

A small bird fluttered into the sky, but that was the only response she got.

She sighed, and sat down again, back against the cave wall. She began counting sheep. Then the sheep turned into bats, then birds, then planes, then the TARDIS. A very grumpy TARDIS.

You should've taken me, the TARDIS whirred. You wouldn't be stuck in this situation.

Clara jumped and snapped back to reality.

For the first time in her life, she missed the old cow.

When the Doctor finally arrived again, the first thing he did was drop the food and yank Clara into the open.

"No touchy walls!" he exclaimed. "Remember?"

Clara quickly rose to her feet. "Sorry, sorry!" she said. "But nothing happened. If you were to ask me, I would say the walls are perfectly safe."

The Doctor pointed his finger into Clara's face. "You...That doesn't mean...just...no touchy walls!"

"Alright, alright."

The Doctor gave her a good, stern glare, then picked the food up, let Clara examine it, and divided it so that Clara had at least 75 percent of it.

"Doctor," Clara said, pushing half of her food away. "I'm not eating that much."

"I'm not hungry," the Doctor said.

"You have to eat."

"I'm not hungry!" the Doctor repeated.

"Well, then neither am I."

The Doctor stared Clara down for a long minute. Then he sighed. "Why do you never listen to me?" he muttered. Clara smiled at him.

"It's my special talent," she said.

* * *

The Doctor didn't sleep that night. He sat next to the mini fire they had made, poked at it occasionally, and watched Clara sleep peacefully. He sighed at least five times, and once in a while, stroked Clara's hair sadly.

After a few hours, the boredom got unbearable. He climbed to his feet and decided he would go for a short stroll. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if Clara would be safe, then decided that she was smart enough to take care of herself for five minutes.

Only a few seconds into his walk, the earth suddenly shifted beneath him. He stumbled, falling flat on his face. When he regain his footing again, he mumbled a string of Gallifreyan curses. Then he froze. If the earth was acting up...

He turned his eyes to the sky.

Thunder clouds were forming. Dark grey, angry thunder clouds.

* * *

When Clara woke up, the Doctor had disappeared. It wasn't quite morning yet, but the sky had turned grey, so she supposed it was some time near dawn. She climbed to her feet, yawned, and glanced over at the fire. It was just beginning to fade away. The Doctor must have just left a few minutes ago. To go for a walk? Probably. Would that end well? Probably not.

Clara was just about to settle back down, when she noticed the sky wasn't grey because of the sun. She squinted at it, and could barely make out a few darker puffs. Storm clouds. Now usually, storm clouds didn't alarm Clara at all. But in this situation, she began to panic.

"Doctor!" she shouted into the air. "Doctor, where are you?"

Rain began to fall, completely blinding Clara. She stepped back into the cave, and shook the water out of her hair. The rain seemed to be literally coming down in buckets.

Clara's eyes flickered over to the river.

The water was rising, two feet, five feet, ten feet, twenty feet. Clara stumbled against the cave wall, completely forgetting the Doctor's warning. The rock behind her caved in, and she let out a yelp. But before the earth could claim her (she would really rather that than drown), water crashed down on her.

She struggled for a long minute, desperate for air, when a gloved hand clamped over her mouth.

Something sharp sunk into her arm.

And she fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

The Doctor rushed into the cave, panting. "Clara!" he shouted. "Clara, where are you?"

He looked around frantically, but other than her bracelet, he found nothing. He was about to really start panicking, when something shimmered into view before him. A tube of water, glistening like gel. With a body inside. The Doctor hurried over and pressed a hand against the liquid.

Clara.

The Doctor pounded against the soft wall.

"It's no use," a voice murmured from behind him. He spun around to face one of the strangest creatures he had ever seen. It was a deep, deep blue, with skin that seemed slightly see-through and oily. Its face was one of a male human's, but with strange scars. Curved horns protruded from its head, its hair was a startling white, and its eyes were a feline-like golden.

"So we finally meet," the Doctor said, leaning in closer to examine the alien.

Its eyebrows raised. "So we do."

"What do you want with her?" the Doctor asked. "She's just a human."

"Yes," the alien said. "She is."

The Doctor blinked, baffled. "So why do you need her?"

"Because she is also a blessing," the alien hissed. "We must sacrifice her to the gods. And then the Mer shall win this war. The wind and earth people will be destroyed."

"You aren't sacrificing her," the Doctor growled. "Not today, not ever."

The Mer person narrowed its eyes. "We are more powerful than you think, Doctor."

The Doctor glared at it. "Who are you?"

"I am Morven," it said. The Doctor squinted at the alien

"And am I correct when I say you haven't been on Earth for long?"

"Our planet was destroyed," Morven said. "And the Mer need Earth more than anyone else."

"Now that," the Doctor said, pointing his screwdriver at Morven. "Is where you're wrong."

* * *

Clara blinked her eyes open, and yawned. She was in a room. A prison-like room. And someone was snoring next to her. She glanced down to find the Doctor sprawled across the ground, sonic screwdriver tightly gripped in one hand.

"Doctor!" Clara whispered, prodding at his head. His snoring stopped for a second. Then he flipped onto his other side, eyes still firmly closed. "Doctor, wake up! Daleks are attacking!"

At this, the Doctor's eyes snapped open. He jumped to his feet, and pointed his sonic screwdriver around the room, completely panicked. When he realized there was no actual danger, he turned to pout at Clara.

"Oi," he complained. "Not funny."

Clara rolled her eyes. "Where are we?"

The Doctor scratched his chin. "Not sure. You were in a water prison before. I met your lovely captors."

"Well," Clara said. "What did my 'lovely captors' say?"

The Doctor frowned. "Actually, they weren't lovely at all. They're going to sacrifice you to their gods."

Clara's mouth fell open. "S-sorry?"

"They're going to sacrifice you to their gods," the Doctor repeated. "Because apparently that'll end this war. Don't worry though, we'll get out of this."

"So you have a plan?"

"Plans are overrated," the Doctor muttered. "No, I don't have a plan. But I do know what I'm doing."

"Do you?"

"Not really."

Clara sighed. "You never know what you're doing."

"Knowing what I'm doing is overrated!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Besides, bananas."

Clara's eyebrows raised. "Bananas?"

"Bananas are good," the Doctor explained.

"And that's relevant to our situation, because...?"

The Doctor sighed. "Just trying to keep the mood light."

After that, both of them stopped talking. They sulked against the prison wall for a few hours.

"Doctor, really. Do you have a plan?" Clara finally asked again.

"No," the Doctor muttered. And at that moment, he really wished he did. He wished he could make Clara happy, wished he could truly promise her everything would be alright. But then again, travelling with him, nobody could ever promise anyone that anything would be even remotely fine.

"What do we do?" Clara murmured.

Before the Doctor could reply, the door to their cell flew open. Clara jumped nearly a foot into the air.

"The girl," the Mer standing there demanded. The Doctor immediately extended a protective arm in front of Clara.

"No," he growled. "Take me instead."

The man chuckled. Not a happy chuckle. A dark chuckle. That...really wasn't even a chuckle. More of an evil laugh.

"Oh no, today's not the sacrifice. We're just purifying her."

"Purifying me?" Clara squeaked. "What does that mean?"

The man ignored the question, and reached out to grab her arm. The Doctor shoved Clara behind him.

"Answer her," he said.

The Mer let out an annoyed hiss. "None of your business."  
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Even you don't know."

"The girl!" the Mer practically yowled. "Hand her over. Now!"

* * *

When Clara returned again, she was shivering, lips tinted blue, brown eyes wide. The Doctor rushed over and gathered her in his arms, but she made no move to return the hug.

"What's wrong? What did they do?"

"They...ice...water...I couldn't...couldn't breathe..."

The Doctor hugged her even tighter. "It's okay, Clara. It's alright."

Clara pushed away. "Doctor, what's going to happen tomorrow?"

"Don't worry about that."

"Doctor. If that was just a purification..."

"Clara, I said, don't worry about that. Get some rest."

Clara sighed, and squeezed her eyes shut, settling onto the cold stone ground. A few minutes later, the Doctor raised her head into his lap. He sang a quiet Gallifreyan lullaby. Just like that day in camp. He wondered if the others missed them at all.

* * *

The Doctor didn't remember falling asleep, but the stress must have been too much. The next morning, when he blinked his eyes open, Clara was nowhere in sight. He shot to his feet. The sacrifice.

The Doctor whipped his sonic screwdriver out and pointed it at the door. After a few seconds, it swung open. So did his mouth.

A maze. Before him was an endless maze. Of course. The Mer had portals. They could zap to wherever they wanted. The mazes kept prisoners from escaping. He groaned, and put his head into his hands. Stupid, stupid stupid. Of course there would be a maze. How did he not see that coming? And the maze was made of wood. No chance in sonicing that down.

The Doctor stepped back into his cell and slammed the door shut.

Now what?

As if a guardian angel was listening, something shimmered in the corner of his eye. He glanced up. A window. A window...

* * *

Clara struggled against the bonds, kicking the aliens around her.

"Let me go!" she said. "Just let me go!"

When that didn't work, she began shouting for the Doctor. The nearest man next to her slapped a gag around her mouth. Clara shot him a death glare. They would be sorry when the Doctor came.

One of the men approached the door and murmured something under his breath. A password, maybe. The door swung open to reveal a huge room, with a golden table in the center and a large knife next to it. Clara felt like her food was refusing to digest.

The Mer standing at the table-Morven, the Doctor had said-smiled at her.

"Don't worry," he reassured Clara. "We'll kill you in the most painful way possible. It'll be a great honor."

Clara tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Morven picked her up and set her down on the table, tying her hands and feet onto the furniture. Clara swore that if she ever got out of this, she would never buy a table again in her life.

Morven reached over and took the knife, positioning it over Clara's stomach. Clara wondered if her life would really flash before her eyes.

But before she could find out, a sudden rumbling shook the room. Morven jerked forward, knife slipping onto the ground.

"What's happening?" a Mer cried.

"The earth people are coming," Morven said grimly. "They're coming for the human."

"Then sacrifice her! Hurry up, you old fool!" another Mer shouted. Morven spun around, eyes narrowed, and pointed a finger at the Mer, who promptly burst into foam. A few of the other men were scattered as well.

"Everyone must keep calm!" Morven said. "Everyone-"

Suddenly a huge gust of wind blew into the room. Clara felt the table she was on tilt to the side, then collapse over. A few seconds later, ghost-like creatures formed in the air. Mud-covered men rose from the ground. Morven's gaze darkened.

"Morven," a plump earth man growled.

"Antaeus," Morven replied. He glanced over at a slim air woman. "Adalira. What are you doing here?"

"I have men surrounding your place. Hand the human over. Now," Antaeus said.

"And I have archers guarding your men," Adalira added to Morven.

Morven's eyes narrowed. "An alliance?" he said. "Between air and earth? I've never heard of it."

Adalira raised her bow and arrow. "Hand the girl over."

Morven sneered. "The Mer won't be giving up so easily."

"They will when they're dead," Adalira retorted.

"Then we'll fight till the very end," Morven declared. "The Mer are stronger than the Trolls and Faeries put together. You all know that."

Adalira let her arrow fly. Morven held his hand up, a water shield forming. The arrow bounced off harmlessly. He hissed.

"Attack! Kill every single one of them."

The room burst into chaos. Arrows and swords and knives were flying everywhere. One landed dangerously close to Clara's head, pinning a lock of her hair down onto the floor. Clara sighed.

"Great. Free haircut."

She used her teeth to pluck the knife out of the ground then nudged it towards her hands. Once the ropes had been untied, she reached down to free her feet. But as soon as she stood up, one of the Faeries noticed.

"The human! Get the human!"

Clara ducked as an arrow whizzed above her head. Immediately, the archer who shot the arrow was shoved aside.

"Don't kill her! Not yet!"

Everyone turned and made a mad dash towards Clara. She yelped, and began running, slipping past mud-men, and just barely avoiding the water traps the Mer sent out. She rushed over to the back door, and rattled the door knob, only to find that it was locked shut. Clara spun around. She was really cornered now.

"EVERYONE STOP!"

The Mer and Trolls and Faeries paused and turned their heads. Clara almost wept in relief. Because standing before them all was the Doctor.

* * *

The Doctor spun the sword around in his hand. He honestly wasn't sure if he remembered how to use it, and he hoped he wouldn't have to, but at least it made him look intimidating. He had even put on a special bow tie.

"Clara," he said in a low voice. "Come here. And if anyone moves-" he whipped out his sonic screwdriver, and everyone gasped "-you'll answer to me. Well, I guess you can breathe. And if you have to, scratch an itch. Or sneeze, or cough. But that's it!"

Clara carefully picked her way through the crowd of people. Not a single person even blinked. The Doctor quickly swept his companion behind him.

"Alright," the Doctor said. "Now, all of you, listen to me." He waved his screwdriver around. "Who are your leaders?"

Nobody moved. The Doctor sighed.

"You can move now, you know!" he exclaimed. Morven took a step forward. Adalira and Antaeus shared a look, then followed. "Why are you doing this?" the Doctor asked as soon as he had scanned the three of them. "What is your motive?"

"Earth," Adalira said. "We all need a new planet. But the Faeries need Earth more than anyone else!"

Immediately, Morven and Antaeus began correcting her.

"You mean the Faeries and Trolls?" Antaeus demanded. "We have an agreement!"

"You mean the Mer?" Morven bellowed. "We can't survive anywhere else!"

"You mean the humans?" Clara spoke up. The three of them turned to stare at her. "Humans have been living on Earth for ages," she continued. "You can't just drive us all out. We won't have anywhere else to go."

"And neither will we!" Adalira said.

"Why not go find some other planet?" Clara asked. "Why not go to Mars?"

"Because our young sisters and brothers live here. Wind, earth, and water."

"And what has become of fire?" the Doctor questioned.

"We defeated Fiammetta! She is dead!" Adalira replied.

"But fire still lives on," the Doctor said. "Fire will avenge its older sister. Fire won't accept you on Earth. The whole planet will perish. Everyone will die. Earth will be a ball of flame. Do you want that? Do you really want to start a war over a planet that houses your worst enemy?"

"Well what do you expect us to do?" Morven said. "Just die out?"

"Find another planet! Find a better planet, a planet that isn't inhabited by creatures who will die to protect their home."

Antaeus sneered. "It's not that simple, Doctor."

The Doctor sighed. "Then you'll have to go through me," he said, raising his arms. "Go on. Someone shoot me." He smiled sadly as a certain memory came to mind. "Look at me. I'm a target!"

Everyone tilted their head, completely baffled. "Doctor," Clara hissed. "Have you really, utterly lost it?"

The Doctor shushed Clara, but kept his gaze on the aliens that stood before him.

"Kill me, and you'll have another seven billion people to go through," the Doctor announced. "You really think you can take over Earth. You're battling yourselves, your numbers grow weak, and when you turn to conquer this planet, you'll find that there is no hope, no hope in your cause."

Suddenly, something flickered in the corner of the room. A Mer had teleported away. And after that, five more.

"Stay in your places!" Morven demanded.

"Move and you will be severely punished!" Adalira screeched.

But despite her words, a quarter of the men had vanished.

"Where are they going?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"They're leaving Earth," the Doctor murmured.

"But where are they going?"

"Far. Very, very far. That was too easy...something's wrong."

There was a loud tingling in the room. Adalira tapped something in her ear and listened for a long minute. The tingling got stronger. Then Adalira shot a scornful look at the others and vanished. Her men followed.

"What's happening?" Clara asked as people began disappearing. "Are they really going to Mars?"

The Doctor scanned the disappearing men with his screwdriver. "No...they're just...disappearing."

Soon enough, he and Clara were the only ones left.

"Where did they go?"

The Doctor's expression was now one of confusion. "I don't know, Clara." The tingling sound grew even louder. Then the Doctor's eyes widened. "Clara. Get out of this room. Now."

They spun on their heels and ran for the door. Clara risked a glance back. Chairs, tables, knives, everything was flickering away. Something shivered beneath them. The ground. The tiles, all vanishing. The ceiling was crumbling, only to pop out of view.

"What's going on?" Clara asked.

"They're being sucked away!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"By what?"

"I don't know!"

They reached the door just in time, and the palace behind them faded into disappearance. The tingling sound in the air stopped.

"We're sitting in a meadow," was the first thing Clara said after she recovered from her shock. "If Mer are water people, why are we in a meadow? And...why is there a town there?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and climbed to his feet. "Why don't we find out?"

* * *

The Doctor knocked on the door sharply, and waited. A long minute passed. When he and Clara were about to move on to the next house, the door swung open to reveal a teenage girl with long blonde hair and grey eyes. Her mouth fell open.

"Doctor? Clara?"

Clara blinked, expression blank, but the Doctor sighed in recognition.

"Allison."

"Excuse me?" Clara glanced at the Doctor. "Allison's still at camp."

"Clara," the girl said. "It's me. Allison. Really."

"No, no, no," Clara said. "That doesn't make sense. You were a little girl two days ago."

"I was a little girl seven years ago," Allison said. She frowned. "Neither of you have aged. Not a bit."

Clara's mouth opened and closed for a whole minute. "Allison..." she finally said. "What year is it?"

"2020," Allison replied.

"Oh my stars," Clara whispered. "Doctor, explain?"

The Doctor whacked himself on the head. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "None of that really, truly happened."

"What?"

"The Mer and whatnot. It was a different universe. A...a parallel universe. No, no, not a parallel universe, that's not possible, a..."

"A pocket universe? Like...the Caliburn house?"

"No, not exactly. Similar, but not exactly. And time moved differently."

"Like with Hila."

"Yes, like with Hila. Except this type of pocket-parallel-different universe can't stand one of another world being in it."

"So it was a different planet, you're saying?"

"No, a different universe! Well...technically, the same universe, but not really..."

"Alright, let's pretend I understand. How did the creatures disappear?"

"It can't stand one of another world being in it," the Doctor explained. "It exploded. That universe. It exploded."

"So how come we're here?"

"I don't know!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Teleports?"

"But we needed wormholes last time."

Allison cleared her throat, and the Doctor and Clara glanced at her. Clara had completely forgotten the teenager was there.

"I have questions too," Allison said. "Why did you leave?"

Clara stared at her, not quite processing her question for a moment. "It was our only choice."

"Running away?"

"We led the danger away from you."

"You never even said goodbye."

Clara sighed. "I'm sorry."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Then the Doctor shot a look at Allison.

"What happened? Who rescued you?"

"A helicopter came upon the wreckage. We left. Genevieve married John. They adopted me."

Clara smiled. "Are they with you right now?"

Allison nodded. "I'll go get them."

She disappeared into the house, and Clara sighed again. "How are we supposed to find your Snogbox?" she asked. The Doctor frowned at her use of words.

"Where did we last leave her?" he asked.

"Next to the Maitland house." Then her mouth dropped open. "Oh my goodness. The Maitlands."

"Don't worry," the Doctor said. "We'll just drop you off a few weeks after you left."

A pattering of footsteps interrupted their conversation. A middle-aged Genevieve trotted down the stairs, followed by a familiar-looking grumpy Laurel, and a tall, even buffer John. As soon as their eyes fell upon the Doctor and Clara, the three of them promptly fainted.

**AN: Yay, end of that, hope you liked it, see what I mean by the ending being a bit "kinda...well...not very good"? Ah well, next chapter I'll start with the one-shot-type-stories again. Oh, and thanks for everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed :) Also, I wasn't even sure about the whole pocket-parallel-different universe thing, so if the kinda-of explanation baffled you even more, or if I completely screwed it up, sorry :P**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hello fellow readers. Here's chapter whatever number it is. Enjoy :)**

Clara jabbed the keys into the door, groceries balanced on one hip, her purse swung over another. The door had seemed to have started a dislike to her the past few days, almost as if the TARDIS had taken an influence on it. When it finally opened, Angie and Artie's voices filled her ears. And not pleasant, happy, peaceful voices, but arguing, angry, impatient voices. Clara half expected to see a full-on war happening in the living room.

"Angie, give it back!"

"It's not yours, I was the one who bought it!"

"It was my birthday present! And why would you want a book, anyway?"

"I need it more than you! This is a life or death situation!"

"Give it back!"

"No!"

"I'm telling Clara!"

"It's my book!"

"It is not!"

"Well I need it!"

"No you don't!"

Clara quickly set the groceries down and rushed over to interfere. She plucked the book out of Angie's hands, ignoring her cry of indignation, and held it over her head.

"What's going on here?" she demanded.

"Angie stole my book!" Artie shouted.

"Artie won't let me have my book back!" Angie shrieked at the same time. Clara closed her eyes briefly, then opened them to examine the piece of literature. Summer Falls, by Amelia Williams. One of her favorites. And one of Artie's too.

"Angie," she started.

"Don't 'Angie' me!" the young teenager exclaimed. "It's my book, I bought it with my own money."

"Yeah, but for Artie," Clara pointed out. "You did give it to him."

"Well I want it back!" Angie said.

Clara sighed, keeping a firm grip on the book in case Angie made a grab for it. "You don't like books, Angie. Why do you want this one?"

"Because! It's mine!" Angie shouted, reaching over for Summer Falls. Clara backed up, book still raised high. She wished the Doctor were here. He was tall enough to keep the book out of danger. Just as the thought entered her head, someone grabbed Summer Falls from out of her hand, causing for her to spin around, startled. A lanky man was standing behind her, grinning childishly, his flop of hair dangling in his eyes.

"Doctor!" Clara said. "What are you doing here? It's Tuesday."

The Doctor frowned. "Oh. Is it? I must've undershot again."

"Give me the book!" Angie yelled, practically leaping onto the Doctor, who flailed, just barely managing to keep the book out of Angie's grasp.

"Gah!" he said. "Clara, a little help?"

Clara reached over, took hold of Angie, and pulled her back. Angie kicked, and one fist connected with Clara's cheek.

"Angie, ow," she complained. "Stop struggling. It's just a book."

"It's a precious book!" Angie exclaimed.

"How so, exactly?"

"It's the only thing Ashton Zachary wants for Christmas!"

Then she froze and slapped a hand over her mouth. Clara's lips curved into a grin.

"Ashton Zachary?" she said. "Who's that?"

"A friend," Angie muttered. "Now let me go!"

"Angie," Clara quickly said. "If you want the book, I can buy you another copy, you know that, right?"

Angie scowled at her. "I don't need you to buy me anything!"

She stomped upstairs, arms folding, glaring at the ground. But a few seconds later, she poked her head back into the room.

"Can we go tomorrow?"

* * *

The Doctor dabbed the ice pack at Clara's cheek. "Angie should really consider taking karate," he said. Clara rolled her eyes.

"She does. And besides, I'm fine."

She squirmed out of the chair, and peered out the window. "Where's your Snogbox?" she asked. The Doctor frowned, but didn't bother to correct his companion. "Well," he said. "It's complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"She, uh...kind of...ahem. Abandonedmehere."

"Sorry, what?"

"You know. The TARDIS abandonedmehere."

"Doctor, speak up."

"The TARDIS abandoned me here!" the Doctor finally shouted.

"Again?" Clara smirked, shaking her head.

The Doctor muttered something under his breath.

"Well, then I guess you're stuck here with me for the day," Clara announced. The Doctor met her gaze. He wanted to tell her that he didn't mind at all. That he would actually prefer being with her over going on an adventure with the TARDIS.

* * *

"So," the Doctor said. "What exactly do humans do in their free time?"

"Well," Clara said. "We, you know, watch movies, cook, talk, read. That kinda stuff."

The Doctor made a face. "Sounds absolutely boring."

Clara laughed. "It's not that bad, actually. Or we could go have a picnic."

The Doctor's grimace turned even wider. "Remember how that turned out last time?" he said. Before Clara could reply, a loud ringing filled the room. The phone buzzed around on the table. Clara reached over, sighed, and answered it.

"Hello?" she said. There was a pause. "Oh, hi! I didn't know it was you, Millicent." Another pause. "Oh. Oh, yeah, sure. Of course. When should I head over?" The Doctor strained to hear the chattering on the other end. "Ah. Yeah, I understand." A very short pause. "No, it's not a bother at all! Melanie's always wonderful."

_Melanie? Who's Melanie?_

"Alright, see you there. Bye."

Clara stood up and set the phone down.

"Where are you going?" the Doctor asked.

"A friend of mine is visiting her sister, who just moved into the country. Her daughter's only nine, but she isn't allowed to come along, so she's staying over at the Maitlands' for now. I'm babysitting, since George is on a business trip."

She swung out of the room, the Doctor hurrying after her.

"Angie! Artie!" she called. "We're having guests!"

Angie, who was perched on the couch, watching TV, groaned. Artie was slightly more excited.

"Who?" he asked.

"Melanie," Clara answered. "She'll be staying here for a week or so."

"Wait," the Doctor said. "No adventures for a week, then?"

"Keep in mind, Doctor, the Snogbox isn't here."

"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed. "She's called the TARDIS!"

Clara was about to reply with a witty remark, when the doorbell rang loudly.

"Melanie's here!" Artie shouted, rushing to the door. Clara hurried over and gently pushed Artie out of the way to greet the slim blonde woman standing at the door.

"Hi, Millicent," she said.

The Doctor poked his head over and caught sight of a small girl hiding behind her mother. He waved, but the girl just stared at him.

"Oh, hello," Millicent said, directing her gaze towards the Doctor. "Are you Clara's gentleman friend, then?"

The Doctor swallowed and glanced at Clara, who simply raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yes, sure, why not?" the Doctor quickly said, much to Clara's amusement. "I'm John."

"Well, nice to meet you, John," Millicent greeted. Then she twisted around. "Mels," she called. The Doctor nearly jumped out of his skin. Mels. Melody Pond. "Mels, come here."

The girl inched into view, and the Doctor got a good look at her. A small, pretty girl with long auburn hair, big hazel eyes, and a tiny frame. The Doctor turned abruptly and headed back into the living room, rubbing his forehead. He wouldn't last a single day with this little girl around. This little girl who was a spitting image of Amy Pond.

* * *

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Clara asked for the twentieth time that day.

"Nothing. Nothing's...wrong." He sighed and took another bite out of a Jammie Dodger. "Everything's perfectly fine!"

Clara narrowed her eyes at him but didn't press further, instead turning back to work on Melanie's ballet bun. It had been three days since Melanie arrived, and every single day was torture for the Doctor. He couldn't help but think of his Ponds every time his gaze landed on Melanie.

"Does that hurt?" Clara asked Melanie as she brushed the bright red hair back. Melanie gave a small shake of her head. "Oi," Clara immediately said. "Don't move." Melanie froze. The Doctor watched as Clara twisted the hair into a ponytail, brushing out the tangled edges.

"When was the last time you brushed your hair?" she demanded.

"Two days ago," Melanie replied, swinging her feet and picking at her shiny white leotard. Clara sighed, yanked a knot out carefully, then twisted Melanie's hair into a ringlet, wrapping it around the base of the bun and tucking the ends in tightly.

"Hair pin," Clara requested. The Doctor quickly grabbed a few of the pale yellow pins and handed it to Clara, who proceeded to stab it into Melanie's hair.

"Ow," Melanie said. Clara patted her head.

"Sorry," she whispered. "Hair spray."

The Doctor stuck the can out, then leaned back as to not get sprayed.

"Ribbon, please," Clara then said.

"Which one?" the Doctor asked.

"The white one!" Melanie squealed. "Today, everything's white!" Clara shot a grin at the Doctor, who beamed back.

Clara fixed the ribbon into her hair, then stepped back to admire her work.

"What do you think?" she asked Melanie. "Will it hold?"

Melanie slipped out of her chair and jumped around. "Yup," she said.

A car honked outside the house, and Melanie skipped off, doing a few pirouettes along the way.

"Bye!" Clara called. "Have fun!"

* * *

"Now what?" the Doctor asked, watching the front door swing shut. Clara yawned.

"I dunno. You know what, you're right. This is boring."

"Ha!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You agree!"

Clara shot him a look. "Why don't we go for a walk?" she suggested.

"What about Angie and Artie?"

"Cinema. They're at the cinema."

The Doctor grinned. "Then allons-y!"

* * *

The Doctor yawned. Going for a walk wasn't as exciting as he though it would be. But he didn't want to head back to the Maitland house. Clara looked too happy.

"So is this what you do when I'm gone?" the Doctor asked.

"Not all the time. I bake souffles, watch TV, break up a lot of fights, go shopping with friends...Stop making that face, it's not that bad."

"How do you not die of boredom?" the Doctor grumbled. Clara smiled slightly and reached over to take hold of his hand, but didn't say anything. After a while, they came upon an ice cream cart. The Doctor glanced at Clara to see her staring at the food.

"Do you want one?" he asked. Clara jumped, slightly startled.

"Hm?"

"An ice cream."

"Oh," Clara said, smiling. "It's okay."

They continued walking, another few meters or so, when suddenly, the Doctor spun around, yanking Clara along.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked.

"You want an ice cream, and you know it."

Clara laughed and followed obediently. The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the ice cream seller, grabbed a cone filled with creamy vanilla and handed it to his companion, who licked it tentatively.

"It's good!" she exclaimed, sitting down on a bench nearby. "It's surprisingly very good."

"I sonicked it," the Doctor explained.

"Sorry?"

"I added flavor to it."

"I didn't know your screwdriver could do that," Clara commented, impressed.

"Neither did I."

He plopped down next to her and watched her eat the ice cream. Clara glanced at him.

"You know," she said. "It's kind of unnerving when you stare at people like that."

The Doctor was slightly flustered for a second. Then he pouted.

"Oi," he replied. "I'm not staring!"

There was a long silence. The Doctor felt himself leaning closer. It was as if they were reenacting that scene at camp all those weeks ago. They were only an inch away from each other, when-

"The Doctor and Clara sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

Clara immediately jumped away, and spun around. Angie was standing behind them, grinning.

"I-We weren't...you...how...no!" the Doctor stammered.

"We weren't kissing, Angie," Clara scolded. Angie waved her phone around.

"I've got pictures," she announced triumphantly. Immediately, Clara shot to her feet and reached out to grab the phone. Angie took off.

"Oi!" Clara shouted. "You come back here, Angie!"

She began chasing the teenager, and the Doctor had no choice but to follow.

"Give it to me!"

**AN: Another note! I was wondering if anyone knew what would happen if I changed my pen name? Would it just be a simple name change, or...would all my followers go POOF because they followed Jenny0901 and not the new pen name? Okay, yeah, I'm being confusing, but...PM me or answer in a review, maybe? XD Thanks**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: I am soooo terribly sorry for the super late update, but it's the first week of school, and everything's chaos. I would do a double update or an extra long chapter, but I'm afraid I don't have time today :( Here's 14, though. It may have a few errors, but I was kinda rushed while I typed this...Oh, right, and I changed my pen name, because I really honestly don't want my parents finding this account. It's souffles-and-bowties now. :)**

After Trenzalore, Clara began getting used to the dreams and flashbacks. Some of them were actually pleasant. Memories of birthdays and family togetherness. Ballroom dancing with the boy she had liked since they were little. And then there were a few unnerving ones that ended in Clara sitting up in bed and screaming for the Doctor. But those became rarer as the weeks went by. Clara was glad. Although she did slightly enjoy the Doctor squeezing her tight and not letting go. Okay, maybe more than slightly, but that was another story.

When the scary phase finally left, the confused phase came. Flashbacks that didn't make sense, voices questioning her about her existence, the TARDIS whirring that she was really more of a paradox than ever. Sometimes settling down with a good book kept her mind off of things, but other times it just made it worse.

Summer Falls by Amelia Williams. The moment she took one look at the author, she snapped the book shut. Amelia Williams. Amelia Pond and Rory Williams. Amy and Rory. Amy and Nose.

Oswin Oswald, Junior Entertainment Manager, Starship Alaska.

Before Trenzalore, Summer Falls had been her guilty pleasure. Now it just made her queasy.

Emma by Jane Austen. Her favorite book when she was Clare Oswin. The last book she read before she had fallen to her death in the place of the Doctor.

And then, when the confused stage walked away, the crazy stage arrived.

She began seeing things, her dead parents, the dog she owned in 1734, ghosts of her past, haunting her in broad daylight. George Maitland had her take a break from nannying for a week, thinking she was getting too stressed. Angie had dropped her sour attitude and was beginning to take on a slightly wary one. The only person who really understood was the Doctor. And even he couldn't help.

The first time it happened, she was eating lunch with Melanie, Angie, and Artie. It was a completely normal day, with Clara thinking that maybe the Trenzalore-related things would finally stop.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

"Can you pass the peanut butter please?" Artie requested. Clara shot him a look.

"You have enough," she scolded. "Your sandwich won't taste good with too much of it."

"It will, it will!" Artie protested. "Please?"

"Half a spoon-full," Clara said after a long minute. Angie rolled her eyes.

"You baby him too much," she muttered. "You never let me have extra."

"Me neither!" Melanie said.

"You're allergic, stupid," Angie said, eyes rolling again. "And besides, Clara always lets you have more ice cream."

"She's a guest, Angie!" Clara exclaimed. "Of course she gets more ice cream."

"Hey, Clara?" Melanie said, interrupting their developing argument. "I don't want a peanut-butter-and-jelly, actually. I want a popsicle. A popsicle ice cream. A vanilla and dark chocolate popsicle ice cream. Pwease?"

"Not until you finish your lunch," Clara said. Melanie's eyes widened until they took up practically half of her face. Her babysitter sighed. "Alright, alright. One. That's all you're getting."

Clara slid her chair back and climbed to her feet, swinging open the fridge door.

"We have strawberry. Is strawberry okay?"

There was no answer.

"Melanie?"

Simply silence.

Clara spun around. The table was empty.

"Angie! Artie! Melanie?"

Voices were coming from the living room. Clara sighed in relief. Probably some sort of joke they were playing. She snapped the fridge door closed and hurried into the room next to the kitchen. But instead of her charges, a man and two women were sitting there.

* * *

"Oswin!" the man exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Clara's mouth fell open. "Oswin? Who's Oswin?"

"You know," the shorter woman said. "You. Oswin Montague."

Clara blinked and glanced around the room. It had changed, shifted, into an old-fashioned mansion, walls stark-white, a large fountain running in the back.

"Um, sorry, but last time I checked I was Clara Oswald," she said, backing up.

"Oswin, wait!" the tall woman said, reaching out an arm. "My daughter. You have been summoned back from the grave. We must know how."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Summoned back from the...excuse me?"

"Well, you died in the fire last week, sweetie," the short woman replied, sniffing slightly. Then she paused, and gasped. "Are you a witch? Is this witchcraft?" She grabbed the man's arm. "Is your daughter a witch? Is my niece a witch?"

"Victoria, please," the tall woman said. "She is not a witch. She could never be one."

"But, Oswin, what are you wearing?" the tall woman stood up, and examined Clara's short-collared knee-length red dress. "It's...so...short."

"Like I said," Clara said. "I'm not Oswin. I'm Clara Oswald. Send me back!"

"Back where?" Victoria asked.

"Back home!"

Then, suddenly, Clara was standing back in the Maitland house, Angie, Artie, and Melanie staring at her with wide eyes.

"Are you okay?"Angie asked.

Clara blinked.

And promptly collapsed.

* * *

One month later, the crazy phase began to die down slightly. It wasn't completely gone yet, but it also wasn't completely there. And when it did suddenly pounce on her, unsuspected, the Doctor would be there, holding her tight, keeping her from slipping away to one of her past lives.

But one night, something completely and utterly unexpected happened.

Clara was getting ready for bed, she was sleeping in the TARDIS that night, as she really was too sleepy to trudge back into the Maitland house. As she was about to wipe away her makeup, something shimmered in the mirror. Clara squinted at it. It was still her reflection, but her hair was a lot longer, almost to her waist, falling in slightly darker ringlets. She raised her hand up to her hair, touching the edges. Immediately, the reflection shifted back to normal.

"Huh," she muttered. "That's strange."

She reached the towel back up to her face, only to realize in horror that spots had begun to poke at her vision. She dropped the wipe and stumbled back, hand pressed against her forehead.

"Doctor!" she shouted. "Doctor!"

There was a large thump somewhere off in the distance, then a muffled curse and a quick patter of footsteps. Then a face appeared in front of her, but it was all blurry and out of focus.

"Claaaaaraaaa...!" the face said, mouth moving in slow motion. Clara reached up a hand, but her arm wasn't obeying. There was a sudden flash of white, then darkness engulfed her.

* * *

"I don't think she's getting up anytime soon."

The clink of a teacup echoed through the room.

"Well, then we'll have to wait," came another voice, identical to the first one. Clara's eyes blinked open. She found herself in a white room, with no floor, nothing, just two other women standing there, one of them sipping tea. The two of them were identical. Not only to each other, but to Clara as well.

"Whoa. Am I dreaming?" Clara rubbed her head. "Actually, no, never mind. Which versions of me are you again?"

The woman with the elegant grey dress and the hair pinned into a bun stood up straighter. "Versions of you? You mean versions of me?"

The other one, Oswin, Clara guessed, frowned.

"You mean me."

"No, me, because I was the one who jumped into the time stream," Clara corrected. She frowned at them. "Why are you here?"

The Victorian-like Clara handed cups of tea to the other two women. "Well, to discuss the Doctor, of course."

Clara nearly choked on thin air. "What, you knocked me out to talk about my...my...friend?"

"He's not really your friend," Oswin said. "More of, um...well..."

Clara shot her a look. "Shut up right now, yeah?"

"You can't just tell us to be quiet, Clara. It's not polite," Victorian Clara said scoldingly, governess mode on. "This is for your own good."

"A therapy talk?"

"A girl talk!" Oswin nearly squealed. Then she wrinkled her nose. "No, never mind...that didn't quite come out right..."

"Alright, alright," Clara muttered. "Let's get this over with." She motioned for them to talk. "Speak."

"I kissed him," Victorian Clara immediately said. 21st century Clara's eyes widened.

"You...what?"

"Well, you did too," Victorian Clara pointed out.

"I did not!"

"You did," Oswin said. "Admit it."

"You two are really irritating, you know that?" Clara rubbed her temples. "Can I go back now?"

"No!" Her two past selves said in unison.

"Sit down," Oswin instructed. Clara obediently plopped onto the ground, which was surprisingly very solid. "Clara," she said. "I don't usually do this, but...he's a nice guy."

"You don't know him," Clara said. "And this is really not you. Is this...me?"

"That's not the point," Victorian Clara interrupted. "Oswin's right. Besides, who do you trust more than the Doctor?"

Clara's mouth opened a few times. "...Nobody."

There was a long silence. Then Clara shook her head.

"Okay, this is ridiculous. I'm going home."

"Ha!" Oswin said, pointing a finger at Clara. "You said home!"

"What?"

"You just admitted that you feel more at home in the TARDIS than anywhere else!"

Clara gaped at her past selves. "I hate you two," she muttered. Then she closed her eyes, and concentrated, hands clenching into fists.

Within five seconds, she was back in the TARDIS. In the warm, endless, comfortable TARDIS.

And at that moment, she realized, that maybe, just maybe, her past selves were right...


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: I swear, it's been YEARS since I've last updated...Okay, more like three months. Same difference.**

**Sorry I haven't been writing. Usually I would use the whole "I'm busy" excuse (which I actually am...was?), but I guess I just sort of...was too lazy to get up and move my fingers around on the keyboard. :D So...I apologize for that.**

It was a hologram, just a hologram.

Clara took a long, deep breath and repeated that phrase another five times in her head.

Just a hologram, just a hologram.

"You know," the hologram said. "I'm not just going to disappear."

Just. A. Hologram.

"You might as well talk to me."

Hologram hologram hologram.

"Well, suit yourself."

Hologram.

"I think I'll go make some soufflés."

"Hologram!" Clara shouted. "You're a hologram! You can't touch anything!"

The hologram floated away. Stupid hologram. Of course Clara had to follow.

The shadow breezed by a few doors and eventually came to a stop near the living room. Clara caught up with the hologram and folded her arms crossly.

"This isn't the kitchen, smart one," she grumbled.

"Who said I was going to the kitchen?"

"You were gonna bake soufflés."

"Who said I was gonna bake soufflés in the kitchen?"

Clara couldn't help but stick her tongue out at the hologram.

"You are irritating. How do people stand you?"

"You just insulted yourself."

Clara scowled and watched as the hologram whipped out an oven from nowhere.

"You see?" It said. "Don't need a kitchen."

Clara plopped down in a seat. The hologram was going to make a fool out of itself. Eventually. And Clara was going to take advantage of it.

* * *

There was something peculiar going on in the living room, the Doctor decided. First of all, there were two voices. Second of all, those two voices were Clara's. Last but not least, they were shouting at each other.

He was going to go investigate.

"Clara!" he called. "What's going on?"

There was a brief pause in the bickering, then the voices started again.

"I didn't mean to splash egg on your stupid hologram skirt!"

"It's not stupid! And yes, you did! You planned it all out!

"Why would I? You're me!"

"Okay, that's not true. You are me."

"No, I was the one who jumped into the timeline."

"Yeah, why did you do that?"

"I couldn't just let the Doctor die!"

"But you could've, I dunno..."

"Let the Doctor die?"

The Doctor poked his head into the room. Clara turned around. So did...Clara.

"Oh," the Doctor muttered. "How did that happen?"

"You tell me!" Both Clara's shouted.

* * *

The Doctor reached over and poked the hologram with a twig, eyebrows scrunched together. The image flickered, then came back with a very cross look on its face.

"Sorry," the Doctor said. He spun around to face Clara. "It's a hologram, no worries, she's not really here."

"Yeah, I've gotten that bit, Doctor," both Clara's said at the same time. The Doctor frowned.

"This is going to get confusing. Right. Clara, you can continue to be Clara. Clara...two...you can be...Oswin...?"

"Oswin's irritating," Clara muttered. "...But then again, so is she. So I suppose the name fits."

"I am you, you know," Oswin said indignantly. "And besides, I'm not just called Oswin, I am Oswin."

"You just contradicted yourself," Clara said. "But then again, you didn't...or...I suppose you did..."

"I really wonder where my genius-ness came from, seeing that the person who created me wasn't all that clever..." Oswin smirked, and Clara stuck her tongue out.

"But you're dead!" the Doctor interrupted, seemingly to not have noticed any of what had happened. "You blew up the planet."

Oswin frowned. "Did I? I dunno, it's all kind of...fuzzy."

Clara leaned forward. "What did it feel like, exploding into a million pieces of nothingness?"

Oswin shoved Clara back. "Nothing. Duh."

"Rude," Clara said under her breath. Oswin smiled.

"That's what I was aiming for."

"You know what," the Doctor said, glancing between the two arguing Clara's. "I'm gonna go...sort this all out. You can continue with whatever you're doing."

Clara and Oswin watched the Doctor turn away.

"I hate to see you go, Doctor," Oswin called. "But we love watching you leave."

Clara frowned. "Was that a reference to-"

"No," Oswin said.

"I didn't even-"

"We're the same person, I know what you're gonna say."

"Riiight," Clara scoffed. "What am I gonna say now?"

"Pink fluffy unicorns," Oswin said without delay. Clara's mouth fell open.

"I was n-"

"Yes, you were. It was that, or 'The Doctor's kind of really hot'."

Clara stared. "You are...such a..."

"Genius?"

"Irritating...Dalek!"

Oswin pointed a red-nailed finger at Clara. "Watch it, Souffle."

"I absolutely-"

"Hate me, I know." Oswin flashed a grin and winked. "Don't worry, that'll be going away pretty soon."

A long minute passed.

"Did you just flirt with yourself?" Clara asked incredulously. Oswin blinked innocently.

"What was that?"

"Right. You're Oswin. You're a Dalek. Flirting with yourself is completely normal."

Oswin shrugged. "I guess being cooped up inside a machine, thinking you're stuck in a shipwreck does bring down your social skills." She gave Clara a sad look. "I guess I'm not the same person I used to be..."

"Oh, stuff it."

"With tears and sweetness."

"No, really, if you don't shut up, I'll stuff a rag in your mouth."

"Well, seeing that I'm a hologram..."

"Oh lord," Clara muttered. "First the TARDIS disappears, then my past self comes and begins annoying the pants off everyone."

"I'm sure I'm annoying the pants off everyone."

_"Oswin!" _


End file.
